


When Roads Become So... - Twisted?

by UlternateFreak



Category: Descendants (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Once Upon a Time Fusion, F/M, M/M, Musicals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-05-03 07:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 36,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5282669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UlternateFreak/pseuds/UlternateFreak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal is second-guessing her relationship with Ben - Ben is second-guessing his feelings for Carlos - and Jane is simply second-guessing everything and anything. Life, you see, isn't as simple as it's made out to be, and unfortunately for them - it's just about to get worse with the arrival of a forgotten villain, and her son, from the depths of the sea.<br/>[Musical Based]<br/>- ...just when you thought that the world couldn't get more wicked, it got unfortunate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue/Perfectly Perfect

     "Mother,” Ulric said, announcing his immediate arrival from the dark and dank streets of the Isle above – or what his mother herself liked to deem, the 'Upstairs' –, “the Barrier – It's been breached.”

     He watched – then waited.

     “Well-well-well,” she finally said, her voice rising as though from the very depths of the sea itself, “so the fairy-wench managed to do it after all.”

     Ulric nodded, and watched as a single tentacle slipped from within the dark cavern of the room and onto the vanity mirror in the corner.

     “Be a dear and help mommy find her lipstick.”

     Another nod.

     “Red?” Ulric asked, his fingers grazing past several littered tubes.

     “As blood.”

     She seized the tube from his outstretched arm and applied it in an instant.

     Now, usually, she preferred to use shellfish as her to go to brand but such a thing had become harder and harder to come by as of late.

     “How long ago?”

     “Two minutes – we may have to act fast.”

     “Certainly,” she said. “You have all you need I assume?”

     “Of course.”

     “Then get to it, for it's time to set things into motion.”

     Seizing his familiar satchel, the boy made his way up the steps and into the bolted door that led out. He stopped shortly though, on the brink of exiting, and turned to address his mother once more.

     “You will be out shortly yourself?”

     “Oh, don't fret over mommy, dear – I have my means to get off this Isle. Now go!”

     “I love you.”

     “As do I...as do I.”

     The sudden light of day flooded into the room.

 

…

**[One Year Later...]**

 

     Mal halted just outside of her dorm room, Evie on her tail as she continued to fret with her hair and makeup. One wrong move and the girl was going to poke out her eye.

     “It's fine, E," Mal said, swatting her hands away from her face for the umpteenth time that day. 

     “But fine isn't perfect,” Evie said.

     “This is just tea with Ben's parents.”

     “It's an Auradon traditional event. Which is why it has to be perfect.” She tugged at Mal's skirt with annoyance. "Did you even iron this like I told you too?"

     She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, mom."

     "Oh, you're lucky that I'm not your mother," Evie teased, "else there would be more than a tug, young lady."

     "Are we done yet?"

     "Almost...and there. That's as good as it's ever gonna get."

     Mal turned to face her. "Thanks."

     "Anytime." She frowned. "Wait! There's a curl out of place!"

     "E-!"

 

     Evie: **Oh, what a perfectly perfect life,**

**It's a fairytale come true,**

**Nearly a princess and a wife,  
**      

     Mal: **Now that I wouldn't do.  
**    

     Evie: **When you dreamed of love, who would've guessed you'd end up here?**

**At the end of a perfectly perfect year!**

**  
**      “I wouldn't go as far to say that it's been perfectly perfect.”

     Evie stopped in her haste. “Why not? You love Ben and he loves you-”

     “Yeah,” Mal agreed, “but-”

     “But nothing,” Evie beamed, seizing her friend by the shoulders, “now go or you're going to be late.”

     Mal withdrew with a sigh on her lips. “Alright.”

 **  
**      Evie: **Oh, what a wonderfully perfectly perfect year!**

 **  
**      The door shut close, leaving Mal to face the silent and lonely hall.

     She sighed.

 

     Mal: **Why do I have to play this part?**

**I would rather rot in jail,**

**Faking life and love and art,**

**Oh, just strike me with a nail!**

**Here I go to the palace, living life of luxury,**

**And I've not once been truly faithful to my friends,**

**Or even me.**

**Is this truly my happy ending? Is he the prince to marry me?**

**When will this horrible nightmare disapear?!**

 

     She paused, and turned to her reflection within the portrait before her.

     “Pathetic.” She patted down her skirt and a gave a small turn, admiring it's princess cut waistline and violet gems.

     Mal hated it. Not, for any indifferent tastes - for Evie was great at what she did - but for the pure simple reason that she hated the look that it gave to her.

 **  
**      Mal: **Oh, what a perfectly miserably awful year!**

 

     She took a step forward, leaving her image behind, and found herself at the steps of the staircase that ran down into the main hall of the dorm-rooms. Somewhere, outside, stood a bustle of people - all laughing and jeering at idiotic things.

     They were all but strangers to her ears though.

     She took another step.

 **  
**      Mal: **...oh, somewhere there must be something more for me,**

**To show me a world that I never knew,**

**It'll challenge my mind with something to do,**

******Oh wouldn't it be finer than fine,**

 ******If that perfectly perfect thing were mine...**

 

**…**

 

     The streets were alive with buzz, even as Ulric cut through the crowds cloaked from head to foot – following Fairy Godmother and her nuisance of a daughter as though a shadow. Their talk as of now had been strictly about the Prince, nearly not quite King yet, and his girlfriend, attending some sort of sacred tea sitting with the King and Queen.

     It was nauseating to say the least.  
  
     Jane **: He's a perfectly charming prince,**

 ****Fairy Godmother: **She's a charmingly perfect lass,**

     Jane: **They lived happily ever since she beat her mother's-**

     Fairy Godmother: **Vengeful wrath.**

**Make some haste Jane, my dear. Oh, the time is drawing near...to celebrate-**

**A perfectly perfect year!**

 

     Jane sighed.

     “Why are we here?” She asked, turning to her own reflection in the storefront windows.

     As usual, she frowned.

     “I need a few parcels,” the woman answered. “Trips aren't as easy as they use to be.”

     “Well if you just used your wand-”

     “Never,” she said. “Besides, it must stay here. Should you truly wish to prove yourself as my daughter to the council, then you must take the rightful place as protector of the wand and everything else within that museum.”

     “Do you really think I'm ready though?”

     “Well,” she said, “we shall see, won't we?”

     She turned to her watch with a smile and stepped off the curb. “Tea should be starting soon.”

     Jane, however, remained transfixed at the window for a moment. She ran a hand through her hair and adjusted her dress. Behind her, in the distant reflective world, she could see her mother bustling through a crowd of people. They hadn't immediately let her through - not until they had recognized her. After which, they parted - almost as though she had been a plague.

     Jane supposed that respect would do that to someone.

     "Jane," the woman called, "where did you go!?"

     "Coming!"

     "Oh," she said as her daughter came into toll, "there you are." She paused for a brief moment to give her a smile. "As I was saying, I'm going to need you to pick me up a few things while I'm gone - nothing too extravagant, but they are of importance."

     Jane nodded. "Of course, mother."

     "I trust that your marketplace skills have improved?"

     "I like to think so."

     "That's my girl." She patted her cheek with a single palm. "Now about my wand-"

     "Again?" Jane groaned.

     "It's of the utmost importance-"

     "Everything is of the utmost importance," Jane said with a sigh, "but I'm fairly sure I got it."

     The woman smiled. "I'm fairly sure you do too."

 

     Fairy Godmother:  **Oh, on this perfectly perfect day, there is magic in the air,**

****Ulric: **Gee, I wonder if that old lady will miss the wand that she will spare.**

 ****Fairy Godmother and Jane: **What can ever come between this?**

 ****Ulric: **I would gladly volunteer!**

     Fairy Godmother: **And as for the future well it's perfectly clear,**

 ****Fairy Godmother and Jane: **It's sure to be another magically...**

 ****Ulric : **Tragically...**

 ****Ulric, Fairy Godmother, and Jane: **Perfectly perfect year!  
**

…

 

     “Just breathe,” Mal said to herself as the doorbell chimed, signaling her immediate arrival to the castle.

     Ben's castle. Yes, Ben's – nearly – that was correct.

     She sighed.

     Perhaps this was all a mistake on her part – not just the tea sitting, but all of it. All of Ben. Of her – of her and Ben. Of this entire year.

     She had nearly thrown up on the car ride here, which would have been terrible considering the fine seats within that limo.

     “Breathe.” She told herself. As if that wasn't hard enough on it's own.

     The door opened before her.

     “Oh, hello, dear,” Mrs. Potts greeted, her curls dancing about her as she skirted around to fully open the door for Mal. “We've been expecting you. Oh, what a lovely dress – I must say, purple is quite becoming on you. I myself fancy a lovely violet from time to time.”

     “Yeah,” Mal nodded, “it's a family color, I suppose.”

     The woman paused - then, in an instant, she seemed to come back to life.

     “Yes – quite right, I suppose it is.”

     She briefly smiled once more before she gestured Mal into the familiar sitting room and left. Admittedly, yes – this was a familiar space to Mal, just as much as most of the castle was, and yet despite the many times that she took these very steps it was always such an agonizing feat to her. Everything here was too polished for her liking - too clean - too high - too grand. Would it have killed the royals to live in a home that actually seemed - well, lived in?

     “Mal,” Belle greeted from her place on the small table that was nestled in the corner of the room, “It's so lovely to see you again.”

     She smiled. “Same.”

     “Ben and Adam shall be joining us shortly – now come, sit.”

     Mal nodded and sat upon the dainty chair that stood across from the other woman - and if her scraping the bottom legs of said chair across the marble floor had bothered the other at all, well then she had chosen not to show it.

     “So tell me,” Belle continued with a warm and gentle smile, “how goes your studies? Is Auradon treating you and your friends accordingly?”

     “Yes,” Mal nodded. “We're all doing well. I – well, I'm doing fine, I suppose.”

     “You suppose?”

     “I don't know,” she shrugged, “it's – well, it's nothing.”

     “No-no,” the woman insisted, “tell me, What troubles you?”

     “Nothing really. I don't know... I guess, well – on the Isle there was always work to be done. Things to do. And here – well...”

     “You feel inadequate?”

     “Bored,” Mal corrected. She then grinned. “More like bored.”

     Belle giggled. “I see. And...does my son know about this?”

     “Not really – but-”

     “Oh,” Belle cut in, “I won't tell him. You don't have to worry about that. Believe me, I know far too well how boring life can be for a royal at times.”

     “Really?”

     “Of course. I was once like you after all – full of spirit and a sense of adventure. Now true, I may be more likely to divulge into a good book or two but life is still for the living. Sometimes we can't be bound by words on pages.”

     “Even if they're nice pages?”

     Belle nodded.

     “Especially then. Staying for nice – or lovely, you see, is quite different than staying for love.”

     Mal sighed once more and turned toward the window that overlooked into the courtyard. For a brief moment, Belle had followed her gaze until Mrs. Potts had returned with her fresh pot of tea. She had thanked her, and the woman had left shortly afterwards.

     Mal, all the while, had remained transfixed at the window still.

     “Milk and sugar?”

     “Just milk,” the girl answered, her eyes coming to lie on the saucer that rested by her elbow. It was a pretty little thing - but, as with everything else, it was far too fragile and pristine looking. She contemplated the idea of shattering it against the wall - just to see what the Queen would do in retaliation. 

     Belle nodded.

     “Milk for me as well, mother.”

     The women turned to the doorway, finding Ben and his usual bright grin neatly plastered upon his face.

     “About time,” Mal teased as she sat up - her hand, thankfully, releasing the saucer that she hadn't truly realized was within her palm.

     “Business,” Ben giggled. “Strictly business.”

     “Is that what you call talking on the phone?” Adam joked as he entered the room himself.

     “Dear,” Belle greeted.

     “You were on the phone?” Mal then teased.

     “Yes,” Ben laughed, “sorry – it wouldn't have sounded respectful to say I left you waiting for a call.”

     “Playing,” Adam cut in, “you were playing. On the phone.” He turned to look directly at Mal. "He was playing."

     “With who?” Belle giggled as she continued to pour them tea herself.

     “The short one,” Adam laughed. “Who else would it have been? Sugar, dear – thank you.”

     Mal snorted. “Carlos?”

     “Yes,” Ben flushed.

     “Always on the phone with that one,” Adam continued, looking to Mal as if it was the most atrociously funniest thing in the world, “our bills have never been this high. Perhaps we should have taken him up on that cellphone agreement - huh, dear?”

     Belle smiled. “Does the little De Vil even have a phone?”

     “A dorm line,” Mal answered.

     She nodded with a motion that seemed to insinuate that she thought herself a complete clog for forgetting such a thing. “Right.”

     “I didn't know that you talked to him though,” Mal then said to Ben, “On the phone, I mean.”

     “Yes,” Ben said once more, “well, it kinda just started happening.”

     “That's good,” Mal said, “It's good that you're getting along with the others. I was actually starting to think that you didn't like them anymore.”

     “Oh, not the little one,” Adam said with a wink, “I don't know about the others but definitely not the little one.”

     Mal laughed.

     Good, she thought, that's good.

     Really.

 

**…**

 

     “I imagine that you've made all the necessary preparations?”

     "Yes,” Jane nodded, “I've done it all.”

     “That's my girl,” Fairy Godmother said. “Now remember, I won't be far-”

     “I'd feel safer if you had a phone.”

     “You can reach me through the Queen should anything truly arise, but I daresay that you can handle yourself, Jane.”

     “It's not me that I worry about,” Jane said. Which was the truth. For though she had claimed to be at bay with the idea of being here and in charge, she was truly frightened beyond imagination.

     The woman frowned. “You don't give yourself enough credit. You're a good girl – one of the coolest-”

     Jane rolled her eyes. “-girls that I know – that I'll ever know.”

     “You have to say that,” Jane said, smiling small despite herself, “you're my mom.”

     “It's not in the handbook.”

     Her smile grew. “Must you really go?”

     “You'll be fine,” the woman assured as she gently cupped her daughter's face for the second time that day, “I wouldn't be leaving if I didn't truly believe in you. Now I have to go. I'll see you in a week.”

     Jane nodded into her mother's palm until she was gone.

     The door shut behind her.

     Jane frowned. “...the coolest.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Song: Perfectly Perfect (Cinderella 3 A Twist in Time) - several liberties were taken in regards to the lyrics.


	2. In the Dark of the Night

     Jane bolted upright from her bed, her face dripping with sweat and gathered tears – all remnant signs of the dream that she had just been forcefully, luckily, pulled out from.

     She gasped. “Mother.”

     Turning to her immediate left, a ghostly lit reflection of herself met her eyes. And beyond that, laid the museum in the distance – followed by the slight sliver of the moon overhead.

     “...just a nightmare.”

     With another intake of breath she nestled into the sheets once more. Out of habit, her eyes ran to the ceiling – where her mother's room lay. It, undoubtedly, was just as cold and dark as her own room now.

     “A nightmare,” she repeated with a hand at her forehead. “Just a nightmare.”

     Her eyes returned to the window.

     Still though...

     Briefly, for the tiniest bit of a second, she had seen a light upon the horizon, exactly where the museum stood. Or at least, it had seemed to be a light – but perhaps not. Yes.

     “Stop it,” Jane said as she forced her eyes shut, “it's all in your head. Just a nightmare.”

     Her thoughts ran back to the dream – her eyes opened. “It wouldn't hurt to check though.”

     She bolted up once more and jumped out of bed and into a robe and slippers.

     “It's my job after all – so, I should do it – just to be sure.”

     She paused at the window.

     “It's really dark out there though.”

     She nodded.

     “Very dark...”

     Once more, the briefest flash of a light met her eyes.

 

…

 

     “Shes the key,” Ursula said, her image rising from the wall of mist that now ran from the ceiling of the room and onto the floor. “Everything else that we've tried has failed.”

     “I know,” Ulric said. “But Jane, mother? She's a nobody – she doesn't even know magic. I honestly doubt that Fairy Godmother would even-”

     “Never underestimate a mother's love for their child!”

     The mist wavered as the woman came forward to strike – and though her hand couldn't physically manifest itself past the specs of water, Ulric had flinched.

     “Oh,” Ursula then said, “I didn't mean to snap at you, dear. Mommy's just had an off year is all. And you know how she gets when you doubt her.”

     “I know,” Ulric nodded.

     “But mommy does love her boy, you do know that, right?”

     Another nod.

     “Good. Now it's time to get down to it.” She turned toward the wand. “Now the little tramp is easy – just look at her – but how to get her to get you the wand will be a challenge.”

     “Maybe if we got a hold of squid ink instead,” Ulric said, “it might be able to pierce past the-”

     “No,” Ursula cut in, “we don't have the time. We've wasted all year in preparations – paying dues where due, and collecting every bit of information that we could. We have it all worked out – every step – every word – but that wand-!” The vision of mist wavered.

     She sighed. “The girl is our best bet.”

     “And,” she continued, “it's about time that you put those family charms to good use.”

     “Can't you afford to give me anything-?”

     “No,” Ursula said, “we've used most of the ingredients that I had stored up. But you don't need magic for this, dear – she's a human. They're quite the prey in the end.”

 

…

 

     “Just shadows,” Jane said as she came to the door of the museum – the winds nipping at her bare legs beneath her robe. Inwardly, she felt like a nervous wreck – outwardly, even more so.

     “I can do this. I can – sides, there's probably nobody in there. I shouldn't even be here-”

     An owl hooted overhead – she immediately shrieked and fell into the archway of the building.

     Perhaps this had been a mistaken – maybe she could call for a guard – or for the King – no. She snapped her head up and peered towards the sky. She didn't need help with this, she was in charge. She, Jane, was all that she needed. At least, that's what she told herself.

     “Breathe, just-”

     A laugh broke forth from within the building and through the night.

     She shrieked once more – and bolted down the steps.

     She stopped.

 

     Jane: **In the dark of the night I** **was tossing and turning,**

**And the nightmare I had was as bad as can be --**

**It scared me out of my wits --**

**Auradon falling to bits!**

**Then I opened my eyes,**

**And the nightmare was...me.**

     Jane turned towards the museums entrance once again. She nodded – and took a single step forward.

**…**

  
     Ursula: **I was once the most magical woman in Atlanta.**

**When the royals betrayed me they made a mistake!**

**I will make each of them pay,**

**Just one little girl in the way!**

**** **Little Janie, beware,**

**My son is** **awake!**  
  
     Ulric: **In the dark of the night evil will find her,**

...   
  


     Jane:  **In the dark of the night just before dawn!**

     She flushed herself against the door...

…

 

     Ulric: **Revenge will be sweet,**  
  
     Ursula: **When the curse is complete!**  
  
     Ulric: **In the dark of the night,**  
  
     Ursula: **She'll be gone!**

**I can feel that my powers are slowly returning!**

**Fix my lips** **and a dash of perfume for that smell!**

**As the Pieces fall into place,**   
  


     Ulric:  **I'll see her crawl into place!**   
  


     Ursula:  **Bid goodbye, Janie, Your Grace!**

**Farewell...**

**In the dark of the night terror will strike her!** **  
**  
     Ulric: **Terror's the least I can do!**  
  
     Ursula: **In the dark of the night evil will brew.**

**Soon she will feel that her nightmares are real.**   
  


     Ulric: **In the dark of the night,**  
  
     Ursula: **She'll be through!**  
  
     Ulric: **In the dark of the night,**

**Evil will find her,**

     - removing himself from the wall of mist...

     Ursula:  **Find her!**

...   
  


     Jane:  **In the dark of the night terror comes true.**

\- finally unlocking the main door...

...   
  


     Ursula:  **Doom her!**

**My dear, here's a sign --**

  
     Ulric: **It's the end of the line!**

…

 

     Jane: **In the dark of the night...**

     - heading up the steps...

...   
  


     Ulric:  **In the dark of the night...**

     - staring towards the wand...  
  
  
     Ursula: **Come my Ulric,**

**Rise for your mother,**

**Let your evil shine!**

...

 

     Jane:  **In the dark of the night...**

     - hurrying up another flight...

…

 

     Ulric:  **In the dark of the night...**

     Ursula:  **Find her now,**

**Yes, move ever faster.**

     - wavering within the mist...

…

 

     Jane: **In the dark of the night...**

...   
  


     Ursula: **In the dark of the night...**

     - vanishing...

...   
  


     Jane:  **In the dark of the night...**

      - turning about a corner...

…

 

     Ulric: **She'll be mine!**

 

     “You!” Jane hollered as she bustled through the doors, her arms instantly rising to a rather defensive – but pathetically so – pose, “who are you?”

     The boy turned away from the wand to face the out of breath girl.

     “My name is Ulric,” he said with a charming smile, and slight bow.

     Jane remained in her place. “What are you doing in here?”

     “Was just walking through.”

     “This place,” she said, “it's off limits after curfew.”

     Ulric smirked. “Yes, well – I was never one for rules.”

     “...are you a student – from Auradon Prep?”

     “No.” He took a single step forward.

     “Stay back – I'm warning you-!”

     He froze. “Sorry – clearly I'm upsetting you. So I'll go.”

     Another step.

     “I said stay back-!”

     “But,” Ulric said, his voice wavering into the most sheepishly innocent tone that he could possibly conceive, “you're blocking the only exit of this room.”

     Jane gave a once over around their surroundings. “Fine. Go then.”

     The boy nodded and came closer to her, his eyes in complete and absolute contact the entire way. She, however, remained just as defensive as before.

     “Who are you?” He then asked, startling her from her near death stare trance.

     “What-?”

     “Your name. I gave you mine, so it's just as fitting that you should do me the courtesy of giving yours.”

     “Yes, well,” she said, “I wasn't the one trespassing – so courtesies aren't here.”

     He grinned. “Fair enough. I suppose I just have to live with the mystery of it all. Such a shame though, not to be able to put a name to such a pretty face.”

     Her arms fell to her sides.

     “What-...?”

     “Nothing,” Ulric said, already facing the door, “I'm sorry to have awoken you. A girl like you shouldn't be out in the dark of the night dressed so...'light', after all.”

     Jane pulled her robe tighter around her person.

     He turned towards her. “Forgive me.”

     And with that – he was gone.

     For a moment, Jane simply stared after him – then, she turned towards her mother's wand – and shortly after, towards the small puddle of water on the floor.

     “Ulric,” she repeated to no one but herself. She sighed.

 

…

**[The Next Day]**

 

     Ben came to a stop in front of the library, his smile neatly in place as he caught sight of Carlos and Dude – who were playing another round of fetch on the patch of grass a few feet in front of him.

     “Hey,” Ben greeted, a slight skip in his step, as he approached his shorter friend, “you're done with your mid-terms already?”

     “Yeah,” Carlos nodded, “I only had one this morning.”

     “For?”

     “Chem.”

     Ben grinned. “Bet it only took five seconds for you, huh?”

     “Thirty minutes,” Carlos said, “I'm not that fast – or smart.”

     “I don't know, thirty minutes is fastedly smart in my book.”

     “That's not a word.”

     “Just proving my point,” Ben laughed.

     Carlos grinned, but turned to Dude – who had returned his chew toy back within a handful of seconds from throwing it. “Who's a good boy?”

     Dude barked and yipped as he ran around the pair, enticing joyous childish laughter from the both of them, even more so from Ben surprisingly.

     “He's not the only one.”

     Carlos turned back to Ben.

     “What-?”

     “Nothing,” Ben said, “...so are you free all afternoon then?”

     Carlos looked to Dude, “well we've only been out here for fifteen minutes – I promised that I would give him thirty, but after that – yeah, I am. Why?”

     Ben shrugged. “I don't know. I have nothing to do and – well, we're always talking on the phone later on anyway so I was thinking that we could go hang out or whatever.”

     “Is your dad still giving you a hard time about it?” Carlos teased.

     “You know about that?”

     “Mal told me – she thought it was funny. And I agreed.”

     “I know hes joking,” Ben said with a gentle smile, “it's not like we can't afford it – but, I don't know, he makes good points, you know? I mean, I don't see why we just don't hang out more often instead of just talking all the time.”

     Carlos nodded. “Yeah, I don't know either. Guess I always thought that was something only you and Mal could do.”

     Though it was a strange thing to hear – to say – or even to think – Ben found himself agreeing.

     “Well, that changes now,” he said, “so come on – we'll walk Dude for another fifteen minutes, then we'll drop him off – and then we'll go see a movie or something.”

     “Can we give him twenty minutes?”

     “Sure,” Ben grinned, “whatever you want. But I get to pick the movie.”

     “Not fair – if I'm gonna pay to see a movie I-”

     “And who said you'd be paying?”

     Carlos frowned. “What-?”

     “I asked you out,” Ben said matter of fact, “so I'll pay.”

     “...asked out?”

     “Yeah, you know – to the movies? It was my idea.”

     “Right,” Carlos nodded, “right. Okay.”

     Both boys turned towards Dude – and though he, Ben, was smiling, inside he was finding himself rather nervous by the prospect of his own choice of words. Had he just asked out Carlos De Vil – in a manner sort of speak?

     He supposed that yeah, he did – in a way, but not – you see, in that way. No, not in that way at all – yet yes, kind of – but not really so.

     “So where are we walking to?”

     “What?” Ben asked, turning to his friend once more.

     “Walking,” Carlos said, “should we just head to the dorms or-?”

     “Oh,” Ben said, “uh – yeah, or we could go to the tourney field first. Then the dorms.”

     “And then to the movies,” Carlos laughed – nervously so, but Ben hadn't – thankfully – caught on.

     “Yeah,” he said. “Let's go.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed.  
> ...  
> *Song: In the Dark of the Night - Anastasia. Some liberties were taken in regards to the lyrics.  
> Artist/Composer: David Newman.


	3. Love Is an Open Door

     The morning routine was rather simple – robotic in the sense that Jane just didn't truly care anymore, no not after all the years in which she had spent with herself alone before the bathroom mirror.

     Wake up – fix bed – take shower – hair – makeup – and eat.

     Simple. Yes.

     Today, however, seemed to call into question that rather 'simple' routine.

     She had woken up, as usual, but the bed had been left untidy – mother hadn't been home to remind her, and breakfast had called to her sooner than usual, since mother hadn't been there to cook it, and then the shower had been minimal, thanks to the wasted time on breakfast, and her hair – well, she had actually tried to do more with it than her simple to go to bob – mother hadn't been there to tell her otherwise. She had brought the curls in, and had set it to her left shoulder. Pleasantly surprising, it looked good – quite becoming on her.

     For once, her reflection had left her with the impression of doable.

     And that – well, that was truly frightening to say the least. Which was strange. For it needn't to be frightening, but it had been – it was. She was trying, and it would be clear to everyone that she was trying – and that was frightening. For if she failed...

     She brought her face back into the frame of the mirror, and smiled.

     “Doable,” she said – not 'pretty' though, never pretty. She could never bring herself to say such a thing – no, not over herself. Not ever.

     She puffed out her cheeks and spluttered.

     Doable.

 

     Since midterms were underway today, Jane had an open morning – which she reveled in by going into town to take care of her mother's supply list. Some were trivial things, such as groceries and cleaning supplies, but then there were the odd items – things that Jane felt were more suitable for witches and such. What her mother did with these ingredients were beyond her, especially considering the absence of magic within their lives.

     She liked to think that her mother still had a knack for the craft though – that she continued to practice sorcery in secret, behind her back. Perhaps then, in her own eyes, her mother would be far more human to her. And not just a cutout of a storybook character come to life.

     “Milk, newt, and eggs,” Jane read aloud as she steered her way through the streets of the market, looking not at the list in her hands but at the gathering crowds and stands around her. There weren't many people of her own age here, most likely they were at the school – or off with friends, doing what friends tended to do with each other.

     “Milk and eggs I get,” she continued to herself, “but the newt? What does she need a newt for?”

     “Perhaps she wishes to borrow it's eye?”

     Jane had nearly shrieked, but in her haste - composure had been met.

     “Sorry,” Ulric said with a gentle smile, “I didn't mean to scare you.”

     “You,” Jane said, her eyes moving from the boy's own face and into the market street, “what are you doing here?”

     “Shopping?” He offered. “Same as you.”

     She nodded. “Yes, well – I should be going.”

     “Now hold on,” he said, clamping a hand on her arm. Though it had been just an innocent graze, she had instinctively pulled away.

     “Don't touch me.”

     “Sorry – I just, well I keep frightening you off when all I want to really do is talk to you.”

     “Talk to me?” She replied, “you broke into the museum last night – what does that have to do-?”

     “I jimmied a lock,” Ulric said, cutting in, “I hardly call that breaking into.”

     “Well then we have two different ideas about breaking into places.”

     Jane turned on her heels and began to scan the arrays of shelves that stood erect outside of Mr. Myrtles' Stop and Things. If anyone had newt around here, it would be Mr. Myrtle.

     “I feel like we're getting off on the wrong foot,” Ulric said.

     “I feel like you don't know when to take a hint.”

     He laughed. “You're a lot feistier than I thought.”

     She reached for a jar that housed a single lizard, but it hadn't been a newt.

     “But to be fair,” he continued, “you're a lot more talkative too.”

     She turned to regard him. “What's that supposed to mean?”

     “I've seen you around – with your mother – and well, you're not much of a conversationalist.”

     “I talk when I need to,” Jane said.

     “It's the marketplace, isn't it?”

     “What?”

     “The market,” Ulric answered, “I get it – this is like your forte, isn't it? That's why your mother has you come down here all the time. Yes, you're terribly shy at school but the moment you set foot in the market, it's all business.”

     “How do you know that my mother sends me down here?” Jane asked.

     “I see you – and not always with her. Which is strange because you would think she would accompany you here of all places and yet she doesn't. Hence, she must believe that you know what you're doing.”

     She selected another jar. “If you know who my mother is, then why don't you know my name?”

     “Oh, I know you're name – I just didn't want to scare you anymore than I did last night.”

     She nodded. “Yes, well...I've found what I was looking for, so I'm leaving.”

     “That's a salamander,” Ulric said in regards to the jar that Jane was currently holding, “not a newt.”

     “They're the same thing.”

     “No,” he disagreed, “you see, a newt may be a salamander but a salamander is not necessarily a newt.” He reached over to the shelf and pulled out a darkly-dank jar. “This is a newt. If you actually look close enough, you can see the difference in the skin.”

     “Miss?”

     Jane turned around to face the shopkeeper of the establishment, Mr. Myrtle himself, who immediately drew back in surprise with a gracious and kind smile upon meeting her face.

     “Oh, Jane – I almost didn't recognize you,” he said.

     “Mr. Myrtle,” she greeted with a small curtsy – a custom she had learned from her mother.

     “Did you do something new to your hair?” He asked. She nodded. “Well, it looks great – it's the new you.” The older man then turned to Ulric. “This young man isn't bothering you, is he?”

     Jane turned to look at Ulric herself – he immediately smiled and handed her the jar.

     “No,” she then said, “...he was just helping me.”

 

...

 

     “What did you think?” Ben asked as they walked out of the theater midst the busy streets of Main Street. Carlos, who had been quite quiet since leaving their seats, turned towards him.

     “I liked it,” he said.

     A crowd of girls giggled past them, their laughs stilling the air between them as they began mindlessly chattering about their next adventures together.

     “We should go to dinner-” “-coffee.” “-no, yogurt.”

     “I did too,” Ben finally said. He ran a single hand through his hair. “Remember that part where the guy stole the sledge hammer?”

     “And he brought it down on the juice-head-?” Carlos laughed, “oh, but then the other guy came in all stoned and he started singing-!”

     “ **Don't rain on my parade!** ” Ben sing-songed poorly, and wrongly, with a hop in his step. He jumped around to face Carlos and began hacking at him in imitation of the films climatic scene.

     Carlos maneuvered around him and brought his own imaginary chainsaw down. “ **Don't tell me not to fly – I've simply got to-** ”

     “ **If someone takes a spill** ,” Ben cut in, “ **it's me and not you-** ”

     They both jumped into rhythm.

     “ **Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade!** ”

     When their laughs had subsided, the girls from beforehand had been gone – and they had found themselves closely knit together, face to face.

     “It was good,” Carlos then said, breaking away from the other.

     Ben nodded, and pulled away as well – once again, he ran a hand through his hair.

     “What now?”

     “Huh?” Carlos asked.

     “Well, the night is still young – and I don't really want to go home yet.”

     “Oh,” he nodded, “...what do you want to do?”

     “I don't know.”

     They began to walk, their minds drifting off into the possibilities that the night life offered in Auradon. Carlos, of course, had no real right to offer up any plans considering that Ben was paying for everything – at least, that's what he thought at any rate.

     “Well,” Ben said as the crossing light turned green, “what are you up for? I – well, you have the things that you like to do – and, well, I chose the movie so...”

     Carlos smiled. “Whatever you want is fine-”

     “Stop that.”

     Carlos stopped in his tracks. “Stop what?”

     “Well not your feet,” the other laughed, pulling him forward onto the curb by the hand. The shorter had stumbled into the other, but Ben had been too wrapped up in his chuckles to notice the obvious blush on his face.

     “I meant,” he continued, “that I want you to stop agreeing with everything I say.”

     “What-?” Carlos asked.

     “You keep saying fine or good to everything,” Ben laughed, “back there – on the pavement in front of the theater was the first time tonight that you were acting like yourself.”

     “Oh.”

     “Yeah, oh.”

     They crossed over yet another intersection.

     “We're supposed to be hanging out,” Ben then said, “and by that I mean we're mutually talking and deciding on things.”

     “Okay,” Carlos nodded, “I get it. Sorry.”

     “Don't apologize.”

     They came to the town square – which was just a fancy way of saying the town's biggest park and playground. It, honestly, was a very nice place though. Carlos especially loved the gazebo that sat off to the side. During the summer, he and Dude would come here often – sometimes, on the days when he nearly had the entire place to himself, he would sit and sketch out plans for future projects.

     “Let's have a swing,” Ben said, pulling Carlos along to the playground. Luckily, for them, the place was vacant by this time.

     “So,” he then said, already gaining momentum from his jump onto the seat, “think of a place yet?”

     “No,” Carlos answered.

     Ben rolled his eyes. “Just choose an interest-”

     “Do you really want to buy fabric or spare parts from the junk yard?” He kicked off from the foam mat below them and began to catch speed.

     “I would,” Ben nodded with a smile, “if that's what you really wanted to do, than I would.”

     “You don't even like any of that though.”

     “But you do,” he said. “And part of being a friend, is accepting their likes enough to join them.”

     “Really?” Carlos asked. “Because Jay is my friend and all, but hes never gone with me and Evie to the fashion district.”

     “That's different,” Ben said, “we're different. He has his way of going about things, and I have mine.”

     He turned to Carlos with a grin. “Is that highest that you can go?”

     “No,” the other said, “I just don't feel like going faster.”

     Ben nodded to that, but quickly jumped from his highest peak and came down off the swing.

     “What are you-?”

     The blond clambered up behind him and seized the chains of the swing – he brought him back, with his head just grazing Carlos's own shoulder.

     “You're not scared of heights – right?”

     Carlos looked to the ground. “No – but-”

     The force of the push was instant – one moment, he was besides Ben and the next, he was off into the air. And though it had frightened him at first, he had relaxed – for every time he rose up, he came back down – right into the warm palms of a certain green-eyed King.

     “Do you really want to go get fabric though?”

     Despite himself, Carlos grinned. “Why – are you just realizing that you'd rather go and see Audrey then spend a single minute more with a fashionista?”

     “No,” Ben laughed, “I'll have you know that I'd much rather be with you than anyone else right about now – but I'm glad to have Carlos De Vil's snarkiness back.”

     "That's not true.”

     “What isn't?”

     “About the whole 'anyone else' thing,” Carlos said.

     Ben continued to push him. “And whys that?”

     “Because there is one person you'd rather have be here over me.”

     “Yeah?” Ben asked. “And who's that?”

     Carlos came down and into Ben's palm once more – only this time, the King had stopped his motion in order to bring the boy closer to his person as before.

     “Mal,” Carlos answered as his feet returned to the earth. And to his immediate – tough deniably – disappointment, he stayed there.

     He waited, truth be told, for Ben to say anything at this. For it was true, and Carlos knew it. Ben would've gladly surrendered him over for his girlfriend. That was a given – it was to be expected. And yet, well – to know that, hurt a bit.

     Ben cleared his throat.

     “I wouldn't,” he then said, just above a whisper – one that readily and easily swept over Carlos's ear and cheek, “...I mean, I love hanging out with her – but, well – I like hanging out with you too.”

     Carlos nodded.

     “No,” he then continued, “love – I meant love, Carlos. I love hanging out with you too. Just as much as her."

     Another nod.

     Ben gripped the chains tight and swung himself over to face the younger boy, his eyes instinctively traveling across his face and into his own. He sighed.

     “I get the feeling that you don't understand me,” Ben said – to which Carlos rose to.

     “I understand you plenty!'

     “No,” Ben continued, “I mean yes – you do. You're probably the only person who's gone the closest...even more than Mal."

     “Because we talk a lot,” Carlos said.

     The other nodded. “Yeah – but... Well, when it comes to how you view yourself, or more specifically – how I view you, you seem not to grasp that you're an amazing person.”

     “Am not,” he said in a mere whisper, a smile readily forming over his now flushed face.

     “But you are,” Ben grinned, “and yet you deny it. Like just now. I meant what I said – but you felt it necessary to prove your self-worth smaller than Mal's – when in all actuality, I view you and her as one in the same.”

     “...I don't know what to say to that.”

     “Well,” Ben said, “in that case – how about we go get burgers and shakes until you figure it out?”

     Carlos nodded. “Yeah – I'd like that.” He laughed. “I'm actually kind of starving.”

     Ben grinned.

 

...

 

     “I should really be getting back now,” Jane said, not looking at Ulric but rather at the night sky above them. She had finished her to-do list a while back, and yet had stayed out till the sun had fallen. Or, to be extremely accurate, she had finished half of the list this morning – dropped them off at home – and had went to class for a single final before she had returned to the marketplace, where Ulric had promised to still be. Though she hadn't gotten her hopes up, the boy – and what a handsome boy he was – had still been there. Just as he had promised.

     “But the night is young,” Ulric said as he swung Jane's remaining bags in between them. Though she had insisted against it, he had convinced her to let him carry them. “You can't honestly say that you want to go home – especially with your mother gone. Just think it, Jane – shes not here to give you a curfew, no magical limits tonight. When are you ever going to get a chance like this again?”

     “When I'm older,” she answered.

     “But life is about being young!” He swung the bags further and skipped into the street.

     She laughed at his antics – as she had been doing all day – but had quickly stopped when she had snorted.

     Ulric smirked.

     “Shut up,” she said, “and don't laugh.”

     “I'm not,” he said. His smile blossomed – but it wasn't one out of mockery or disdain, but rather of teasing and, if she was reading it correctly, adoration.

     “Yes, you are,” she lightly smiled.

     “No – no,” he assured, “I'm just smiling at how incredibly adorable you are.”

     “Am not,” she said – rather quickly one might say.

     “Sure you are,” Ulric said, “trust me, I don't ever lie. If I say you're pretty – or adorable – or even beautiful, then it must be true. Anyone who says otherwise if just a liar.”

     “But not you?” She teased.

     He nodded. “But not me.”

     Jane looked on over to the town square in the distance – from here, she had a clear view of the gazebo and playground. And though the park tended to close after dusk, she could make out two forms by the swing set. Lovers, most likely – than again, she assumed all coupling pairs were lovers when she was out and about in the streets, or at schhol. Perhaps it was a singles thing to do – to assume that all others were happily in love and completely faithful to one another.

     She wondered though, albeit briefly, whether or not others now were mistaking her and Ulric for a couple. Though a frightening thought, to say the least, she felt herself feeling a sense of pride just believing that others were thinking such things about her – over her.

     She smiled.

     “I won't force you to though.”

     Jane quickly turned to Ulric – who was looking at everything and anything but her.

     “What?” She asked.

     “To stay out,” he said, “I won't force you to. I may want you to, but I won't force you to.”

     “Oh,” she said. Then after a moment, “maybe I can stay a bit longer.”

     To that, he turned – to her – and grinned. “I mean, if that's what you want.”

     She nodded. “It is.”

     “Good.” He skipped over onto the curb, placing every bag into his left hand and looked on over to Jane. “Would it be completely unacceptable to ask if I could hold your hand?”

     "My hand?” She asked, looking down to her arm and his own free extended one.

     “Yes,” he said, “I mean, I hope I wasn't being too forward by asking you but-...”

     “No, of course,” she nodded and she awkwardly gave her hand to him.

     “Are you sure?” He asked. “You seem a little hesitant.”

     “Not because of you, it's just – well...I've never been asked that question before. I've never been asked a lot of things actually.” She turned away to face the pavement.

     “I find that hard to believe.”

     “Really?” She asked, “because I don't think it's that hard at all. My life...well...”

 

     Jane: **All my life has been a series of doors in my face,**

      **But then suddenly I bump into you.**  


     Ulric smiled. “For me it's the same thing! 'Cause like-”  


     Ulric: **I've been searching my whole life to find my own place,**

**And maybe it's the night sky talking or the light of the moon.**

     Jane: **'Cause with you...**

     Ulric: **'Cause with you,**

     Jane: **You found your place...**

     Ulric: **I see your face...**

     Jane and Ulric: **And it's nothing like I've ever known before!**

  **Love is an open door!**

**Love is an open door!**

**Love is an open door.**

     Jane: **With you!**

     Ulric: **With you!**

     Jane: **With you!**

     Ulric: **With you!**

     Jane and Ulric: **Love is an open door...**

     Jane: **I mean it's crazy-**

     Ulric: **What?**

     Jane: **We finish each other's-**

     Ulric: **Sandwiches!**

     Jane: (Snorts) **not what I was gonna say!**

     Ulric: **I've never met someone-**

     Jane and Ulric: **Who thinks so much like me!**

    **Jinx! Jinx again!**

     Ulric: **Our mental synchronization,**

    **Can have but one explanation,**

**You-**

     Jane: **And me-**

     Ulric: **Were-**

     Jane: **Just-**

     Jane and Ulric: **Meant to be!**

     Ulric: **Say goodbye...**

     Jane: **Say goodbye...**

     Jane and Ulric:  **To the pain of the past,**

      **We don't have to feel it anymore!**

**Love is an open door!**

**Love is an open door!**

**Life can be so much more!**

     Ulric: **With you!**

     Jane: **With you!**

     Ulric: **With you!**

     Jane: **With you!**

     Jane and Ulric: **Love is an open door...**

 

     “Can I say something crazy?” Ulric asked. “Will you go out with me!?”

     “Can I say something even crazier?” Jane asked, her face beaming bright. "Y---No." Her face fell.

     "What?"

     "No," she repeated with a shake of her head, seemingly coming off from her high and back into her true self. "No - this, this is all nice and all, but it's all happening too fast."

     "Jane," Ulric said, coming forward. He gently tugged on her arm and kissed her on the cheek.

     "No," she said once more, pulling back with a blush, "no. I'm sorry, but I have to go-!"

     "Jane-"

     "What!?" She asked, turning back around.

     Ulric sighed, deflatedly so, and lifted her bags up to her. "...don't forget these."

     "Oh," she said, "thank you. And I'm sorry - I really am...but I just can't live in this."

     "Live in what?" Ulric asked gently.

     "This fantasy," Jane said, "...girls like me don't get to."

     She gathered her bags and turned on her heels and fled off into the night, leaving the boy to stand all alone within the gathered streets.

     He sighed. Perhaps this was gonna be a bit harder than expected.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Song: Love Is an Open Door (Frozen). A few liberties were taken in regards to the lyrics.  
> ^^^^ Though I feel it completely unnecessary to state such.


	4. Did I Mention/A Lovely Night/If Only...

     “Are you sure about this?” Carlos asked, peering high at the palace walls – completely enthralled by it's sheer size.

     “Of course,” Ben answered. “Curfew was called hours ago. You can sleep here.”

     “And your parents won't mind?”

     Ben turned towards the shorter boy, their height difference even more apparent thanks to the level of steps below them.

     “They won't even know,” He said.

     Ben clamped an arm over his shoulder and unlocked the front door. He slowly opened it in order to maintain control over the amount of sound that was created.

     They crept their way up the stairwell and down several halls, passing a library and a sitting room. Finally they came to a massive door that Ben himself unlocked with yet another key.

     “My room,” he whispered as he guided Carlos in.

     He shut the door behind them and turned on the lights.

     “Benjamin Florian,” a voice digressed in an instant, “- where have you been?”

     “Mom-?” Ben asked, immediately turning round to the woman who sat by his bed, “what are you doing in here?”

     “I was waiting for you,” she answered. “Honestly, no call – no-” She turned to regard Carlos. “Oh, Carlos – hello, sweetie.”

     “Hi,” he said with a small awkward wave.

     She turned back to Ben – her smile fell. “We, young man, will talk about this in the morning.”

     Ben nodded as she rose to cross between the two of them, and out the door.

     “Just wait till your father hears about this,” she said. She held the doorknob tight and swung it shut with a brief 'goodnight' – which was most likely directed to Carlos.

     Ben sighed. “I didn't expect her to be up.”

     “Yeah,” Carlos nodded, “...sorry.”

     “Don't apologize.”

     Ben turned to lock the door and swept his hair over to the side.

     “At least we won't have to keep extremely quiet now.”

     “We should probably just sleep though,” Carlos said.

     Ben nodded and headed toward his dresser. “Do you need anything – sweats, another shirt?”

     "Sweats,” Carlos answered. “I can just use my own shirt though.”

     “Nonsense,” the other said, “here – just use one of mine.”

     He tossed a shirt and a pair of sweats at the other boy, and shut the drawer.

     “I hope you don't mind that I sleep in my boxers,” he announced, looking at the other corner of the room. What he was looking at, Carlos couldn't tell.

     “Not at all,” he said in return.

     Ben nodded to himself and slipped his jacket off. “Tonight was fun,” he said as he unbuttoned his shirt, “we should do it more often. Maybe we'll go to eat somewhere else though – my burger was a bit too dry for my taste. Not saying that it was bad, it was just – well, it was nothing special. If my dad had been there...”

     Carlos stared at the muscles in Ben's back, watching as they contracted in and out as he spoke. Part of him told him to look away, but he couldn't. He wanted to simply stare – to possibly even reach out and-

     Ben turned around, his fingers tangled within his zipper, “-he would have given the cook some tips on how to properly prepare a-”

     “I have to go the restroom.” Carlos announced as he briskly looked elsewhere – which was to the ceiling in his case. His cheeks were on fire, and his eyes had been dangerously close to going south on the other boy.

     “What?” Ben asked, followed by, “oh – uh, it's through that door.”

     Carlos nodded and dashed towards the door that Ben had pointed to – to his briefest horror though, he had caught a glimpse of Ben's briefs between his open fly. He would never have guessed that they would be violet. Not that he ever truly thought it over.

     He slammed the door behind him and fell back onto the frame.

     “Fuck,” he muttered. He grazed his lip between his teeth and stepped forward into room. It was quite spotless to say the least – pure in every sense of the word. It suited Ben, he supposed – in fact, thinking back on the general decor of the other room, his entire bedroom suited him. All blue with white borders – and dashes of gold. In here, it was the opposite though – all white with blue borders. No dashes of gold. To his surprise though, there was a single dash of red in the corner – some type of checkered sweater that still had it's tags. Carlos actually liked it, for it was in his array of style – but he couldn't picture Ben wearing such a thing truth be told.

     He turned away from the sweater and peered at his reflection in the mirror.

     He sighed.

     “...what am I doing here?” In truth – it was a question that didn't need an answer – for he knew, he had known for a very long time now. It had simply been on the back burner up until now.

     He brought a hand to the mirror.

 

     Carlos: **... well did I mention,**

**That I'm in love with you?**

**      And did I mention...? **

 

     He turned towards the door.   
  


     Carlos: **There's nothing I can do...**

**      And did I happen to say, **

**      I dream of you everyday? **

**      But let me say it out loud, if that's okay... **

 

     A tear came to his eye as a knock surfaced from the door.

     “Carlos?” Ben called out.

     “Yeah?”

     “Are you okay in there...?”

     Carlos nodded. “Yeah, sorry.”

     “...stop apologizing.”

     He nearly laughed as he turned on the faucet to buy him some more time, and wiped at his face.

     “I'll be out in a bit,” he said.

     He turned the faucet off.

 

     Carlos: **…now look at what you've done,**

**You got me down on my knees,**

**Because my love for you is-...**

 

     He sighed once more.

     “...Ridiculous.”

 

**... **

 

      “Where should I, uh – sleep?”

     “The bed,” Ben answered, looking up from where he laid beneath the sheets, “it's big enough.”

     “Oh,” Carlos nodded – idiotically, “right, I knew that.”

     Ben chuckled from his spot and watched as the other sat above the covers.

     “You can,” he said, “sleep under the blankets, you know.”

     Carlos nodded once more and pulled the comforter back to lay within it. He sighed.

     “Are you even tired?” Ben then asked, moving onto his side to face him. Carlos wish he hadn't though, for the blanket had slipped just enough to reveal his upper chest.

     “A bit,” he lied.

     Ben nodded. “Okay...”

     Carlos stared at the ceiling for a moment, but quickly turned to Ben. He was still staring at him.

     “I know you're not tired,” Ben continued after a moment, “mostly because you're a bad liar. Which is weird considering it all.”

     “Yeah,” Carlos said, “I know.”

     The other laughed. “It's not a bad thing.”

     “According to Jay it is.”

     “Well not to me,” Ben said, “lying doesn't get anybody anywhere.”

     “It helps though,” Carlos sighed, “sometimes you just have to lie.” He turned over to face the wall.

     “...are you alright?”

     “Yeah.”

     “Really?”

     Carlos nodded but knew that Ben wasn't as convinced about things as he had hoped. He was a terrible liar after all – which is why he muttered a small 'sorry' in an effort to explain himself.

     Carlos had instantly been pulled inward after that. And for a moment he had been confused, but the arms that had snaked around him had answered any such unspoken questions – followed by the chin placed gingerly over his own head.

     “Stop apologizing,” Ben said again. And though he had sounded serious, his smile had given away the slight amusement that was beneath his words.

     “Okay,” Carlos said, wondering whether or not the other could feel his racing heart beat. If he did, then he didn't show it.

     “I was being serious,” Ben then said, “about earlier. How we should do this more often.”

     “All of it?” Carlos asked. His voicing sounding small and unsure.

     Ben nodded. “Yeah.”

     A pause fell – then, “even this?”

     Carlos bit his lip – he was an idiot. He shouldn't have asked such a stupid question. He was always asking such stupid questions.

     Another pause fell.

     “Yeah,” Ben then said, nodding into Carlos's head and pulling him in closer, “...even this.”

     He hadn't known what to say to that – and yet a single and definite question was upon the tip of Carlos's tongue now. He wasn't going to ask it though – he wouldn't. He couldn't.

     So he let the question hang in the air between them.

     'What are we doing?'

**...**

 

     “All you had to do was seduce the little bitch!”

     Ulric cowered from the image of his mother, which grew in size as she continued to holler profanities. 

     “Take her to dinner – sing a song – hell, fuck her! But no, you can't even do that right!!!”

     “Shes not like that,” Ulric said as a wave of water manifested itself from the mist. She was using stored up magic – he knew that, and yet she had told him earlier that her sources had been dried.

     “Every human is!” She spat. Another wave crashed into the side of the building on Ulric's left side, shattering a window frame in. Luckily, he had chosen to answer his mother's call in a vacant area.

     “Not her,” he continued, “shes different – overly good-”

     “Than be overly charming! Bring her flowers – take her dancing – must I do everything!?”

     “I'm sorry-”

     Another wave lapped around him, and clogged his lungs as he tried to breathe. He choked and fell over – but just as soon as it had surfaced, it had washed away.

     Ursula simply watched as her son spluttered before her in the streets.

     “Useless,” she then said, turning away to regard an artifact on her end, “just like your father.”

     “I am nothing like my father,” Ulric said, sitting up.

     “Than prove it,” she said. She tossed a bottle into the mist. “Here.” The glass vile fell into Ulric's hands as he whipped his damped bangs out of his face.

     “It's an elixir,” she said in a quieter manner, “but only an enhancer. If you can get her to even fawn over you a smidge, than this will empower it. If, however, she has doubts than it will empower that. Just one drop - one."

     “Thank you, mother.” he said.

     “Do not mess this up again. Now bring me that wand.”

     She vanished into a puddle of water at his knees.

 

**...**

 

     Mal watched from her bed as Evie paced about the room – her heels echoing upon the floor with each and every step. It had been interesting at the start, mostly because of the reasons behind it, but that had quickly turned to annoyance within five minutes.

     “Will you stop?” She asked as she flipped open her spell book.

     “I can't,” Evie said, “Doug said we needed to talk, Mal – and needing to talk is never a good sign.”

     “You honestly think that hes gonna break up with you, E?”

     “Maybe,” she said with a shrug, “I don't know. Maybe he found someone else.”

     “He's Doug,” Mal groaned, “the son of Dopey – his options are kind of next to none.”

     “And what's that suppose to mean?”

     “What it means,” Mal chuckled, looking down to her book. “I mean who in their right mind would even want to-” She looked up to find Evie glaring at her. “Hey, he's the one dumping you – not me.”

     Evie planted herself onto Mal's bed. “He is dumping me, isn't he?” She fawned over and fell to lay before the other girl. 

     “Hey,” Mal said gently as she took her friend's hand, “look...even if he was – and I'm not saying that he is – you don't need him. You're independent, remember – and smart?”

     “I know,” Evie said, speaking directly into her comforter, “but what's wrong with being independent while wanting a boy to love you?”

     “I think it defeats the purpose.”

     “I disagree,” she said, lifting her head, “I can be an empowered woman in love. Yes, I don't need a man to come and save me but having one to come home to would still be nice. I thought you would understand that, Mal? Just look at you and Ben.”

     “What about us?”

     “Well,” she said, “you two are together but you're both independent.”

     “We are,” Mal nodded, “but I don't think that you should model your love life after ours.”

     Evie wiped at her eyes – and it wasn't because she was afraid to cry in front of Mal, over a boy no-less, but rather because she didn't want to ruin her makeup anymore than she probably already had.

     “And why not?”

     Mal blew out her cheeks. “I don't know...just, just don't.”

     Evie motioned to comment further but a knock at the door had silenced her.

     “Come in,” Mal said instead.

     In no less than a second, Lonnie and Audrey had pulled Jane in by the arms – a more forceful display should one had truly been there to see it.

     “What are you guys doing here?” Evie asked.

     “We've got dirt,” Audrey answered as she released the other girl with a wicked smile, “guess who was out all night past curfew because her dear little old mommy wasn't home?”

     “Jane?” Mal asked as she closed the door.

     “The very same,” Audrey continued, “she was spotted in one of my Snaps from a family friend.”

     “And,” Lonnie cut in, “with a boy no less.”

     “A cute boy.”

     “Who?” Evie asked, her woes now long forgotten.

     Jane burrowed into herself at the question, wishing with all her might that she could evaporate on the spot.

     “Guys,” Mal said, coming to Jane's side, “shes clearly uncomfortable.”

     “Oh well,” Audrey snapped, “this is the first time shes ever been in the limelight – or, in a good limelight I should say.”

     “Oh,” Lonnie said. “I know – just ask your little mirror gadget, Evie!”

     “Can't you just show her your snap?”

     “I deleted it.”

     “Mirror, Evie,” Lonnie giggled.

     The blue-haired girl nodded and pulled out her mother's gift from her purse besides her bed.

     “Wait,” Mal cut in, halting her friend with a hand – she turned to Jane, “is this alright with you?”

     “Of course it is,” Audrey said.

     “I was asking her.”

     “Yes.”

     Both Audrey and Mal turned to Jane.

     She nodded. “Yes, it's alright.”

     Audrey smirked. “Perfect.” She turned to Evie. “Proceed.”

     Evie nodded, “magic mirror of my might, who was Jane seen with late last night?”

     The mirror revealed the sleeping face of Ulric.

     Almost instantly, Audrey and Evie squealed.

     “I told you he was cute!”

     “He really is,” Lonnie agreed.

     “But who is that?” Evie asked.

     The trio turned to Jane.

     “Well?”

     She flushed. “Just...just some boy-”

     “Obvi.”

     “That I met,” she continued. “...in the marketplace. He was helping me.”

     “Does he go to school here?” Audrey asked.

     “I don't think so.”

     “Is he older?”

     “Is he-?”

     “I don't like him.”

     The four girls turned to Mal, who hadn't uttered a single word since the mirror had revealed the boy's true face.

     “Why?” Lonnie asked.

     “I don't know,” Mal answered honestly, “I just don't. He gives me an odd vibe.”

     “You can't get vibes off from a picture,” Audrey argued.

     “Her mirrors magical,” Mal argued, “so we basically saw him in real time – in person, technically.”

     “Whatever,” the girl countered. She instantly whipped round to face Jane again. “So what's his name?”

     “He told me that it was Ulric.”

     “Well, where is he from?”

     Jane looked to the floor, “I'm not entirely sure...we didn't talk about things like that.”

     “Well what did you guys talk about then?” Evie asked.

     “Or,” Audrey cut in, “what did you guys do?”

     “We just talked about stuff,” Jane answered, “we were mostly shopping. He asked to carry my bags – we went to go eat – and...”

     “And?” The group of girls – excluding Mal – asked.

     Jane turned away from the trio and smiled. 

     “And,” she said, “for a few hours...we were the only two people in the entire world.”

 

     Jane: **A Lovely night, a lovely night,**

**      A finer night you know you'll never see, **

**      You meet a boy, a charming boy, **

**      As charming as a boy will ever be. **

**      The stars in a hazy heaven, **

**      Tremble above you, **

**      While he is whispering: **

**      "Darling, I love you", **

**      You say goodbye, away you fly, **

**      But on your cheeks you keep his kiss, **

**      All your life you'll dream of this, **

**Lovely, lovely night.**  
  
     Evie: **A Lovely night,**  
  
     Audrey and Lonnie: **How lovely!**  
  
     Evie: **A lovely night,**  
  
     Audrey and Lonnie: **How lovely!**  
  
     Evie: **A finer night you know you'll never see.**  
  
     Audrey and Lonnie: **How lovely.**  
  
     Lonnie: **You meet-,**  
  
     Audrey: **A boy,**  
  
     Lonnie: **A char-,**  
  
     Audrey: **-Ming boy.**  
  
     Evie: **As charming as a boy will ever be.**

 **The stars in a hazy heaven,**  
  
     Audrey: **Tremble above you,**  
  
     Evie: **While he is whispering:**  
  
     Lonnie: **"Darling I love you".**  
  
     Jane: **You say goodbye, away you fly,**  
  
     Audrey and Lonnie: **But on your cheeks you keep his kiss,**  
  
     Evie: **All your life you'll dream of this,**  
  
     Jane: **Lovely,**  
  
     Evie: **Lovely,**  
  
     Audrey and Lonnie: **Lovely,**  
  
     Jane, Evie, Audrey and Lonnie: **Lovely night!**

 

     “Rubbish,” Mal said with a smirk as the others fell about her on her bed.

     “Oh, come on,” Lonnie teased in return, “I bet you felt the same about Ben.” She then turned to Audrey – quickly remembering, “sorry.”

     “No – no,” Audrey insisted, “It's fine. We weren't meant for one another, I now know that.”

     “Really?” Mal asked.

     The other nodded sincerely. “Yeah.”

     “Wasn't it hard to – you know, come to that conclusion?”

     “It was,” Audrey nodded, “but what can you do? 'Sides, I now have Chad – and say what you want, but he's been a good boyfriend as of late.”

     “Really?” Evie asked, clearly surprised.

     “Yes,” Audrey nodded, “he's changed since then – like me.”

     “So you say,” Mal joked. Audrey mock glared at her for a moment before she laughed.

     “What about Jay?” Lonnie than asked, “weren't you and him-?”

     “Hardly,” she giggled, staring off into the ceiling, “I mean yes, we were – we did.”

     The girls laughed – even Mal to her own surprise.

     “But,” she continued, “he was a bit too animalistic for me.” She laughed. “I guess that was the problem the first time around with Ben too.”

     “I bet I could tame him,” Lonnie said.

     “Oh?” Audrey teased, “are your tastes going villain on us too?” She turned to Evie and Mal. “No offense.”

     “What can I say?” The other continued, “I like a challenge – I take after my mom in that way.”

     “She fault to save China – hardly seems the same.”

     “You don't know the true story of her and my dad though. Let me tell you, she was a fighter and he was as much of an animal as any other man-”

     “Really? I thought he was a great typhoon – or a raging fire?”

     “A coursing river – as mysterious-”

     “ **As the dark side of the moon!** ” The girls sang in union.

     “Shut up,” Lonnie laughed.

     “So,” Audrey then said, sitting up to address Jane, “are you planning to ever see this Ulric guy ever again?”

     “I don't know,” she answered, “I mean, he wants to – he sent me these chocolate covered strawberries-” Jane pulled a small platter dish out of her purse.

     “Strawberries?” Mal immediately asked.

     “Yeah,” Jane nodded.

     “Why isn't the chocolate brown?” Evie asked, peering at the treats curiously.

     “It's white chocolate,” Lonnie answered.

     “I wonder if Carlos knows about white chocolate.”

     “Well you can take one to him,” Jane said, “I don't really like chocolate so-”

     “Gimme.” Mal seized the dish and set it on her nightstand – Evie whipped around to stare at her.

     “What?” She asked. Evie simply continued to stare. “Okay, fine – I'll give one to Carlos.”

     “Not what I was going to say-”

     “No, it's fine,” Jane cut in, “like I said, I don't like chocolate. Better you have them then the trash.”

     “Not the most important thing here,” Audrey said, seizing Jane by the hand and forcing her onto her feet, “hes clearly into you, girl – so you have to say yes.”

     “I do?”

     “Of course,” she nodded.

     “But,” Lonnie cut in, standing as well, “only if you want to.”

     “Of course she wants to – he's cute, sweet, and thoughtful with gifts. Right?”

     “I guess,” Jane shrugged. "If you think I should..."

     “Then it's settled,”

     “What is?” She asked, turning towards Audrey.

     “We're going shopping.”

     She seized Jane by the arm and headed towards the door – with Lonnie naturally in toll.

     “You need a new dress – some new shoes.” She paused. “Are you coming?” Audrey asked, turning to Evie and Mal.

     “I wouldn't miss it,” Evie answered, already gathering her things. “Oh, wait,” she stopped, “I was going to wait here until Doug came.” She sighed. “He wants to have a talk.”

     “We'll just call him on his phone and tell him to meet us wherever we are.”

     Evie nodded, but remained still.

     “I'm sure,” Lonnie said as she came over to her side, “that he just wants to plan a study date or something. You're probably worrying over nothing.”

     “You think?” Evie asked, allowing herself to be guided out.

     “Of course.”

     “Mal?” Evie then asked, turning round. “You coming?”

     “No,” she answered, still sitting, “I think I'm gonna hang here.”

     “Okay, but do save a strawberry for Carlos – really.”

     “Yes, mom.”

     The girls left the room with brief farewells – and after a minute or so, Mal had stood up to lock the door. She had wanted to be alone this entire time – but had not voiced it to Evie – so she was happy to have gotten rid of them.

     She turned on her heels and peered at the box of strawberries before her, recalling the first time that she had ever eaten them. Back when she had convinced herself that she had been in love with Ben. And she had been – or, as close to love as she had ever experienced, but well – there was such a thing as falling out of love. Perhaps that's what this was. She was falling out of love with Ben – and he, well he was somewhere else entirely – possibly, still, in love with her.

     She kicked over a discarded school book on the floor.

 

     Mal: **...A million thoughts in my head,**

**      Should I let my heart keep listening? **

 

     She opened the dish with a frown, and seized a strawberry...

  
     Mal: **I know it's time to say goodbye,**

**      So hard to let go... **

 

     She bit into it.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Songs Used:  
> Did I Mention - Descendants.  
> A Lovely Night - Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997). A few liberties were taken in regards to the lyrics.  
> If Only (Reprise) - Descendants.


	5. The Coolest Girl/I Gotta Go My Own Way

     Ben nuzzled himself into the other at his side, feeling momentarily at ease despite the oddness of the entire situation at hand. He hadn't meant to take things this far, not with Carlos – not with anyone else outside of Mal, but especially Carlos. From the first day they met, he had been drawn to the youngest descendant, but then again – he had been drawn to Mal too. And Mal – well, he had understood that – but Carlos, he hadn't. Yet looking to the boy now, he was beginning to.

     He was infatuated with him – in a way that came close to Mal but not so. For there were different feelings behind the two of them, with Mal – he was, possibly, in love – but with Carlos, he was...well it was almost love, but there laid a layer of something else entirely. Almost a craving. A yearning.

     He sighed into the others hair.

     Part of him hated himself, for he was still in a relationship with Mal and yet here he was, cuddling with one of her closest friends no less – but he couldn't help it. Every time he set his eyes on the other boy, he wanted to take him – to have him, like a possession. It had dawned on him a year or so ago – the whole possession thing – when he had first introduced Dude to Carlos. He, the boy, had looked so frightened and then so adorably absorbed with the mutt that Ben had almost pounced on him there and then. That was an issue, you see – side effects garnered by his father's once curse. He had inherited his roar, but also – this primal instinct of wanting to claim everything that he held dear to his heart as his own. It was predatorial – and he knew that, but he didn't care.

     He pulled Carlos closer into his arms.

     Ben wanted this boy – he wanted him in every shape and form. Which included him, though he would never admit it to anyone, in certain sexual positions that would have made even Maleficent blush.

     He couldn't take such a thing that far though – he had his limits, this – this right here – had been his greatest slip up. No, not the asking of a date, but the cuddle session that followed after.

     Now that he had crossed that line though, he knew that he would never go back.

     Cuddling, he decided, was now mandatory.

     ...and sleeping over?

     He pulled back to level himself with the others peaceful face.

     Definitely, he thought – and though it had been a silent indication to himself, Carlos had immediately stirred.

     “Good morning,” Ben simply said as chocolate brown eyes met his own through thickly-laced lashes.

     Carlos seemed to be confused, but a smile had blossomed nonetheless.

     “If this is a dream,” he muttered as he shut his eyes, “than it's a nice one.”

     “It's not,” Ben laughed.

     “Even better,” came the reply.

     Ben reached out to cup the others face, “I sure hope so.”

     Carlos's eyes snapped open.

     “Ben!?” He sat up in an instant, twisting his own limbs in the sheets himself. “What-where?” He looked to Ben, “why-?” He paused. “What's going on?”

     “Relax,” Ben said, sitting up, “We're in my room, remember?”

     After a moment, Carlos nodded.

     “Right. We – uh, we stayed out too late.”

     “Yeah,” Ben chuckled, “so I let you crash here.”

     “Yeah – I, uh – I remember now.”

     “Good.”

     He peered around himself, noting his change of clothes and Ben's lack of - “wheres my stuff?”

     “Over there,” Ben answered, pointing at the bundle of clothes atop his desk.

     Carlos nodded. “I, uh – I should probably get going...”

     “I don't mind.”

     He turned to regard the King once more, “what-?”

     “You don't have to leave,” Ben answered, “in fact, I'd rather you stay – got no plans for today. What about you?”

     “Not really,” Carlos honestly answered.

     “Then don't sweat it.”

     “I do want to get up though....I'm not tired anymore.”

     “Alright,” Ben nodded, “in that case, let's go get breakfast then.”

     Ben pulled the covers back and stood in an instant, he readily yawned and arched his back with a soft roar, almost a purr but not quite. Carlos had, much like last night, simply stared – though this time, unlike then, he had given into his impulses and had trailed his eyes south. Much to his horror – or pleasure depending on how one looked at it – Ben's boxers had slipped a bit south themselves, revealing his light patch of hair just above his-

     “You wanna shower?”

     “Huh?” Carlos darted his head back up.

     “Shower?” Ben asked.

     “Oh – uh, I don't have a change of clothes.”

     The other shrugged, “borrow some of mine – I probably have some old ones that will fit you.”

     “You sure?”

     “Of course,” he grinned. “It would be my pleasure-”

     “-to give me your clothes?” Carlos asked.

     “To see you in them.”

     The other flushed a light scarlet as Ben returned to the bed to sit by him.

     “...you look adorable when you get flustered.”

     Carlos frowned, “do not.”

     “Do to.” He ran his right hand through his hair as his left began to aimlessly wander over Carlos's lap. It was of no action of his own accord – it simply had a mind of it's own.

     Carlos sighed, though his eyes only continued to idly watch Ben's hand. “We should get going.”

     Ben nodded.

     Neither made an effort to move.

 

**...**

 

     Jane spun in the mirror before her, looking – calculating – the nearly nonexistent length of the skirt of the dress she was currently wearing. Now – to be perfectly and honestly fair – it, the dress itself, wasn't completely tasteless – in fact, it was mildly appropriate compared to today's standards, and yet knowing her mother... Well, it stood to reason that such a dress wouldn't have been approved.

     “But shes not here,” Jane said softly to her reflection, doing a third turn.“So stop fretting about it.” She trailed her palms to the skirt line and laid out her fingers – they barely grazed the hem.

     She sighed.

     Outside, just behind the curtain that draped behind her, Audrey and Evie were talking, gossiping about the boys of Auradon Prep despite both, respectively, being in current relationships. Lonnie on the other hand must have still been flipping though a catalog besides them – present, but not quite vocally so.

     “I suppose it can't be helped,” Audrey said, her voice lowering in pitch to a degree – most likely due to impulse. “We've been here for two hours and she can't seem to find a thing.”

     “There's nothing wrong with looking for perfect,” Evie said in return.

     “I don't think perfect is in her vocabulary – she'll be lucky to find decent.”

     “Audrey-” Lonnie snapped.

     “What?”

     “She's standing behind a curtain not a wall-”

     “Oops – do you think she heard me?”

     Jane stripped out of her dress and quickly snatched one from the pile that Audrey had brought her to try on – she had at first dismissed it, seeing as it was a tad too much for her taste, but held in her breath and slipped it on all the same.

     She smirked at her reflection. It was partially modest, diving deeply only a tad at the collar, but a bit more daring on her hips. Surprisingly, it made her curves and legs look good.

     A round of giggles outside brought her back to the curtain – then, as though pulled back, she returned to the mirror. She had only worn baby blue all of her life – so navy was a great change in her opinion.

     Her eyes trailed down to her creamy thighs once more.

     Yes, quite a great change.

     “She clearly didn't,” Audrey than said, her voice still as quiet as before. Which wasn't quiet at all.

     “Still,” Lonnie said.

     “And besides,” she continued, “It's not like I said anything that wasn't true. Everyone knows that it's only mean if it's a lie.”

     “That's not how it works,” Evie said.

     Jane tuned out from the trio and tugged at the price tag on her shoulder. It was pricey, but so was everything else in this damn store – sides, she never bought herself anything costly in her life. This little venture wouldn't hurt her in the slightest.

     Her smirk continued to flourish.

     'You're...one of the coolest girls that I know...'

     Maybe she could prove her mother right on that one.

 

     Jane: **All my dreams,**

**I'm chasing after,**

**They don't need all this laughter...**  
  
**I take a grain of salt,**

**A stiff upper lip.**

**It's not their fault,**

**I'm not as hip.**

**Wake up kid, you know you're more than this...**

**I'm the smartest person,**

**That I've ever met.**

**So why do I allow myself to,**

**Possibly forget:**

**There's so much I know how to do,**

**So much more than all of you.**

**The only thing I wish I knew,**

**Was how to make them see,**

**The girl that I can be....**

**I am,**

**The coolest girl in the whole wide world,**

**I know it,**

**But can't show it at all.**

**I am,**

**Sick and tired,**

**Of low, not higher,**

**Places, where I should belong...**

**It's about time I proved them wrong...**

**Give me a shot,**

**To show what I've got!**

**I'm a hell of a whole lot more,**

**Than this bobbled hair,**

**Those frumpy clothes I wear,**

**Though I rock 'em like nobody you've seen before!**

**'Cause I am,**

**The coolest girl in the whole wide world,**

**I know it,**

**Below it all.**

**I am,**

**Done with losin',**

**On with choosin'**

**The coolest girl on the face of the planet,**

**The coolest bitch on Earth, goddammit!**

**The coolest chick you've ever seen or,**

**Heard!**

**So you can try to break me down,**

**But sorry guys, I'm stickin' around!**

**I've thought about it, and I've found,**

**That I am,**

**The coolest girl!**

**...Yeah!**

 

     She whipped the curtain back, startling Audrey who's hand had been raised to mock-knock against the wall of fabric.

     “I'm getting this,” Jane said with a flick of her hair.

     “Really?” Audrey asked, she then clapped as satisfaction crossed her face. “One of my choices!”

     “I'm surprised,” Lonnie than said as she rose to meet the girls.

     “Me too,” Jane confessed, “but what can I say?” She turned to eye Audrey. “It's perfectly decent.”

 

…

 

     Mal hadn't been entirely sure how or why she had done it, but it had been done nonetheless – and perhaps, well perhaps it had been best to have been done. And yet – still, a part of her couldn't fathom the reason behind her sudden rash decision. All she knew – all everybody knew, in fact – was that she had publicly broken up with Ben without so much as even a single tear.

     She had asked him to meet him at three – at first at one, but he had been busy with Carlos – something about seeing penguins or another – and so she had asked for three. And when three o'clock had come, she had found herself situated by the fountain in the quad of Auradon Prep, sitting – waiting – for Ben to make his appearance. When he had – she had instantly said it.

     'I want to break up.'

     That had been the part in which she had started to question her decision, for though it had to have been said, to have said it that way – that direct, that blunt – well... Well to put it this way or that, her words had gone through him like a knife. Ben had been speechless, then heartbroken... He had cried, not hysterically so – maybe perhaps only a couple of tears – but nonetheless, he had cried.

     And she had tried to explain to him – her reasons, and in a way – she had said everything that had been plaguing her, every last truth. All the way from her abundant uncertainty – to the overly bearing cleanliness of her new profound plastic life – and down to the very deepest desire to seek something more than what she or anyone else was at this very moment in time.

     A knock surfaced at the door.

     “Go away,” Mal said, not wanting to face anymore people – especially if it was yet another girl who was going to verbally insult her for breaking the King's heart. Leave it to those airheads to insult Maleficient's daughter. They were lucky that she had changed her ways for the good – else they'd might wake up to find their horses severed head within their sheets.

     “Mal,” Evie said as she slid the door open, her eyes giving away the worry that she was trying to keep hidden within her voice, “...how are you?”

     “Peachy,” Mal answered with a grunt as she stared off into the ceiling. “Now leave me to rot.”

     “Pity parties,” the other said, coming into the room, “won't get you anywhere.”

     “Neither will regular parties. Then again – I wouldn't know, now would I?”

     “Can we not bring up the past and simply stay in the present?”

     “Whatever.”

     “No, not whatever, Mal,” Evie said, “talk to me. Tell me...why didn't you tell me that you were feeling this way? With Ben – with everything. We're friends, aren't we?”

     “Evie,” Mal sighed, “I wasn't even sure how I was feeling.”

     “That's why you talk about it,” she said in return, “sometimes just saying things out loud gives you the perspective that you simply can't see when your words are just thoughts.”

     “Fine,” Mal said, “you want me to talk? Here I go. I just broke up with Ben in front of half of the school because apparently Auradon kids have no better places to be on Saturdays. Seriously, it's like they live here-”

     “They kinda do-” Evie said.

     “Not the point,” Mal countered, “the fact is, I broke his heart. And while yes, I might – in theory – be sad and everything for hurting him, I can't even feel bad about what I did because I don't feel bad. Everything I said and did was out of truth, but everyone's besmirching me. Luckily there are laws against stoning else I would surely be dead right about now.”

     “Mal-”

     “No, E. Look – you just... I just. I feel-”

     “You feel what?” Evie asked, leaning against the night stand that stood just out of Mal's current reach, where her newly acquired reading lamp stood. It had been a gift from Ben if Evie recalled correctly – either for their half anniversary, or something of that nature.

     Mal turned to her.

     “Nothing.”

     “Nothing?”

     Mal nodded. “Nothing.” Her eyes returned to the ceiling. “I don't feel anything, E...and I don't know why.” She gave a small chuckle. “I gave him the strawberries, you know – for Carlos. I cared so little that I was able to say 'hey, can you give these to Carlos?' And you know what's the worse part? Ben said, 'yeah – okay'. Even after all that – all I said, he was still able to look me in the eyes with his tear-stricken face. I – this...just. Fuck. Yes- fuck. Just fuckedy-fuck-fuck. Fuck.”

     “...do you want me to go?”

     Mal kept to the ceiling. “No. I mean, yeah – I do. But...then I don't.” She sighed. “Can you just lay here with me, E? Until...well, until I start to feel something? Anything...”

     “Of course,” Evie answered, already moving to lay besides her friend.

     She, upon settling, immediately took hold of Mal's hand, to which the other was very grateful for.

 

     Mal: E, **I gotta say what's on my mind,**

**Something about us,**

**Didn't seem right these days.**

**Life kept gettin' in the way,**

**Whenever I tried, somehow the game,**

**Was always rearranged.**

**It was so hard to say,**

**But I had to do what was best for me.**

**He'll be ok...**

**I had to move on and be who I am,**

**I just don't belong there,**

**I hope he'll understand.**

**We might find our place in this world someday,**

**But at least for now,**

**I gotta go my own way.**

**Don't wanna leave it all behind,**

**But I get my hopes up,**

**And I watch them fall every time.**

**Another color turns to grey,**

**And it's just too hard to watch it all,**

**Slowly fade away.**

**I decided today 'cause I,**

**Had do what was best for me,**

**He'll be ok...**

**I had to move on and be who I am,**

**I just don't belong there,**

**I hope he'll understand.**

**We might find our place in this world someday,**

**But at least for now,**

**I gotta go my own way.**

     

     Evie: **What about love?**

    **What about everything you've been through?**

     Mal: **What about heart?**

     Evie: **I know you never wanted to hurt him.**

     Mal: **And what about me?**

     Evie: **What were you supposed to do?**

     Mal: **I think I'm lost, E, I need you**.

 

     Evie: **Oh, you had to move on and be who you are,**

     Mal: **It's clear I had to go.**

     Evie: **You just don't belong there,**

**I'm sure he'll understand.**

     Mal: **I hope he understands.**

     Evie: **You might find your place in this world someday,**

**But at least for now,**

     Mal: **He wants me to stay!**

     Evie: **You gotta go your own way.**

     Mal: **I've got to move on and be who I am,**

     Evie: **What about love?**

     Mal: **I just don't belong there,**

**I hope he'll understand.**

     Evie: **I'm sure he'll understand.**

     Mal: **We might find our place in this world someday,**

**But at least for now,**

      **I gotta go my own way.**

     Evie: **You gotta go your own way.**

     Mal: **I gotta go my own-...**

 

     “Mal?” Evie asked as she turned to her friend, who had immediately sat up to clutch at her own chest.

     “E-” Her pupils dilated a fraction – her breath became increasingly shallow. She fell backwards and into her nightstand.

     “Mal-!?”

      Her reading lamp toppled over to the floor and shattered.

     “I can't – I -” Words ran together and fell to deaths ears as she released her final breath, with her eyes leveling with Evie's own for a moment before closing indefinitely.

     “Mal-Mal-Mal!?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs:  
> The Coolest Girl - A Very Potter Sequel. StarKid Productions. (With slight altercations to the lyrics).  
> I Gotta Go My Own Way - High School Musical 2. (With more than slight altercations).
> 
> Author Notes: Hello! I thoroughly hope that you, the reader, are enjoying yourself. Yes, that I do. Just to clarify, simply because I probably should sooner or later - in regards to this tale, I must confess that I have not completely read 'Isle of the Lost', I'm getting to it now actually. Yay! (It was a Christmas gift). So with that said, I'm starting to wonder whether or not I can keep in tune to that story as canon. I really hope so seeing as I don't think I've set anything pre-established differently aside from Ursula's underground cave/backstory with Ulric, which, in the novel, is actually a fish and chips joint. She, so far, hasn't been mentioned as having a child but I can easily explain that. Not to snide at Melissa De La Cruz, but I prefer to think that my queen would still remain as vicious as she had been. Hence, she still prefers to live remotely until she gains the upper hand. Canon-wise, she doesn't own a fish and chips restaurant. That is my only altercation to the Isle of the Lost timeline. So far. Fingers crossed that I don't have to make any more.


	6. Teenage Dream

     She was being stupid. She knew that, as well as she knew that said stupidity was coming from a very irrational part of her and that she was going to fall if she didn't tread carefully. Not because of her heels or anything like that– no, that would have been fine, well not fine – especially if she fell in front of Ulric himself, but fine being fine should she have fallen that way physically rather than emotionally. After all, it's the things on the inside that hurt the most.

     Jane stopped in her haste, bringing her feet squarely together in a tight knit stance. Anymore pacing and she would have surely found herself carving an indent into the wooden floorboards beneath her.

     “It's not even three yet,” she told herself as she met the face of the grandfather clock that stood erect before her.

     The very thing had been a gift from someone to her mother, maybe a past client – she didn't know, but at any account, it had stood there by the main door all of her life. Sometimes, as a child, her mother had found her watching it hours on end – if only just to see the small white dove that would circle around the crown of the wooden framework upon the top of every hour.

     When, a few moments later, the bird had appeared – Jane had frowned.

     “He's not coming.”

     She looked to the floor and began to pace once more.

     Yes, quite so – an idiot. She was still being stupid. All of this was stupid – Audrey, Lonnie – Evie – they had all set her up to look like an idiot. And for who? Ulric, that's who – the main conspirator in this mean plot to make her the butt of the joke again – to make her look like a complete-

     The door bell rang.

     She jumped – and to her fright, a slight sliver of a crack had appeared within the glass case that was housed within the clock. She stared at it for a moment, her reflection meeting her, as if to state clearly to herself, and whoever else it may have concerned, that the crack had in fact been brought on because of her. She wasn't of magic though – or at least, she had never been tested for it. Her mother was, obviously, magical – just as Mal's was – so magic did run in her veins but her father had been a human though, so the possibility of her being magical were slim in that aspect. Plus her mother's magic was strictly harnessed by wand, not out of hand - like Mal -, and yet – at times, such as these, she wondered if she could possibly hold just an ounce of real natural magic within her.

     The doorbell rang once more.

     Jane opened it.

     “I was surprised,” Ulric immediately started to say, his smile neatly in place and eyes as bright as can be, “when I got your letter I-” He stopped in his musings and darted his eyes over Jane's form. “Whoa, you look...wow.”

     She flushed. “Thank-you.”

     “Yeah,” he cleared his throat, “so about your letter-”

     “Let's not talk about that right now,” Jane cut in as she opened the door wider, “you're more than welcome to come in, you know.”

     Ulric nodded and entered the home with a light skip in his step. “This is quite the place you got here – it's snazzy.”

     “Yeah,” Jane said as she led him into the main den, “uh, come – sit.” She pulled the boy onto the sofa in an instant. “Would you like something to drink? I'm sure we have ice. Or food? There's bound to be something to eat around here.”

     “Do you have any spiced cider by any chance?”

     She peered over to the kitchen. “Maybe – if not, there's definitely iced tea.”

     “You know what? Forget the cider, ice tea would be perfect.”

     “You sure?”

     He grinned. “Of course. I don't lie, remember?”

     “Right.”

 

     Within a minute or so, Jane returned with two glasses and a pitcher full of freshly brewed iced tea – and a half rolled up catalog clenched between her teeth.

     “Here,” Ulric said as he seized the pitcher from her hand, “let me get that.”

     She nodded and slipped the catalog and drinks onto the small table before them, succeeding in only minimal spillage.

     “So I checked on food and found this,” she motioned the catalog, “I wasn't sure what you preferred so I bought the Service Book – anything and everything Auradon has available should be listed in here, and delivery is fast – almost like magic.”

     “Please don't tell me that's the freaking slogan on this thing.”

     She held up the book: 'With delivery that's so fast – it's almost like magic.'

     She nervously laughed. “They had to thoroughly convince my mother to permit them to use it seeing as magic isn't particularly favored as much as before.”

     “Why is that?” Ulric asked.

     “Why is what?”

     “The magic thing.”

     “Oh,” Jane sipped from her tea, “that's just the way it's been for a while I guess. I don't know – mom just says that magic should come from the books.”

     “Don't you ever get curious about it though? Magic, I mean.”

     “Yeah,” she answered honestly, “but the last time that I let it get the best of me it...well, it kinda backfired on me – and everyone...”

     “What do you mean?”

     She took another sip. “It was because of me that Maleficent got out at the coronation last year...I broke a hole in the the barrier over the Isle of the Lost.”

     “That was you!”

     Jane nearly jumped in her seat.

     “Sorry,” Ulric chuckled, “I just – wow, I didn't know that.”

     “Yeah,” she sighed, “I know...it was pretty dumb of me.”

     “On the contrary,” he continued to laugh, “I think that's so bad ass.”

     “Really?” She asked.

     He nodded and took a sip from his own glass of tea. “So what did your mom do to you because of that? I imagine that it must have been some big punishment.”

     “Oh, no – thanks to Mal, I got off easy. Or easier than expected. I was grounded but it wasn't so bad.”

     “Mal? As in Maleficent's daughter?”

     “Yeah,” Jane nodded.

     “Are you two friends?”

     “No – not really. I mean we talk, sometimes, but-...”

     “What about the other Descendants – are you friends with them?”

     “You mean Evie and them?”

     “Yeah,” Ulric nodded.

     “Uh, no – I mean, it's the same as with Mal.” She brought her hand to her face and swept a stray hair aside, “It's just, well – I don't really have friends is all...not like other people-”

     “I'm sorry,” Ulric then said, cutting her off. She turned to regard him. “We don't have to talk about things like this if it makes you uncomfortable. Just say the word and we can change gears and strictly talk about trivial things again – like we did that day we were shopping.”

     “No – no,” Jane cut in, “I like this. I like talking about actual stuff. Yeah, it scared me the other night – which I'm still so sorry about – but when I was talking about you to my, sorta, friends-”

     “You were talking about me with your friends? Sorta?” He asked with a toothy grin.

     She flushed before continuing. “Yeah – but, well they started asking questions and I realized that I didn't know a lot about you. And while, yeah that kind of started to scare me off again, I realized that I wanted to know more about you – and that started to scare me too because I thought I had missed my chance to do so.”

     “Which is why you sent me the letter.”

     She nodded. “And why I'm being so freaking awkward right now.”

     “I don't think you're being awkward,” Ulric said as he reached out to hold her hand, “or, in all actuality, I think what you call being awkward is strictly you being you, and I, for one, just love it.”

 

**...**

 

     Carlos bit into the white chocolate covered strawberry hungrily, and yet despite the imminent sugary promise of a delicious treat, it was, in the end, a complete let down. As bittersweet as it possibly could have been. That, though, could have simply been because Ben was currently rolled up within the sheets of his bed, with his usual beautiful charming face as solemn and dark as could be.

     At first Carlos hadn't understood why the King had called him back so quickly – they had barely parted ways after Ben had tried to cook them both pancakes shaped like penguins, which had ended miserably with batter everywhere – but after he had told him about his and Mal's breakup, well then he had become speechless. And by that, he meant that Ben had stopped talking.

     And he had tried to leave earlier, announcing his departure since it seemed that Ben had wanted to be alone but the King had simply pulled the shorter boy into his arms and had handed him the strawberry treats without a single word.

     Thinking about it now, Carlos could argue that his previous statement had been false: the King was in fact currently rolled up within the sheets of his bed, along with Carlos himself, with his usual beautiful charming face as solemn and dark as could be.

     He sighed. Only he would ever correct his thoughts till they proved to be properly accurate.

     “I'm sorry.”

     Carlos turned, looking over his shoulder for a moment to see whether or not Ben had truly just spoken.

     “What?”

     “I'm sorry,” the other repeated, his eyes closed and unmoving – and if it hadn't been for the tug around Carlos's waist then he would have gone on thinking that the King had been sleep talking.

     “About what?”

     The other sighed, opening his eyes a slight fraction – if just to simply see the boy currently in his grasps. “For making you stay here.”

     “Oh,” Carlos said – then, “you don't have to apologize, it's fine. Really.”

     “Is it? Because you're probably bored out of your mind.”

     “It hasn't been that long,” Carlos said, “besides, you should be thinking about you right now – not me.”

     “I am – I was,” Ben pulled him in closer, “I have been... But that automatically got me thinking about you.”

     “Well, I'm fine.”

     “Not like that,” Ben continued, “well – a bit, but mostly in another way.”

     “Which was?”

     Ben closed his eyes. “A good way.”

     Carlos sighed once more, and turned his attention back to the remains of his first strawberry. It was odd, but in the past minute or so – the thing had started to taste-...

     He gasped.

     “What-?” Ben asked, snapping to alert attention – much like Dude tended to do when sudden noises had interrupted his quiet state of mind.

     “What – what?” Carlos asked, turning his head round once more.

     “You gasped.”

     “I did?” He frowned – then, “I did.” He grinned. “I did gasp. You were right. You're always right.”

     Ben smiled small despite himself, “are you alright?”

     “Perfect,” Carlos answered, tossing over the platter of strawberries in favor of completely turning around and wrapping himself in and around the other boy.

     Ben's smile only grew as the younger boy snuggled into his chest.

     “I'm really glad you're here, Carlos,” he then confessed with his words mostly muffling out within Carlos's white tugs of hair, “you make me feel better...”

     “That's good,” Carlos said in return, “because I don't like seeing you sad. I want to see you smile – always. You're cuter that way.”

     Ben laughed. An honest to god laugh – which was weird, he had thought that he was incapable of laughing ever again – especially with-

     “Forget her.”

     He pulled back a fraction. “Who?”

     “Mal,” Carlos answered. Immediately, Ben's frown had returned. “No – don't frown. Smile, Ben.” The boy wiggled out of submission and placed both his index fingers at the corners of Ben's mouth. He nudged the boy's face into a smile. “That's cute – keep it that way.”

     Ben took hold of Carlos's hands. “I appreciate this, Carlos – I really do, but I can't just forget Mal...”

     “Sure you can,” Carlos said, “just don't think about her.”

     “Teach me how to forget to think then.”

     “Okay.”

     Carlos smirked and leaned in to place a sweet and neat little kiss upon the corner of Ben's mouth. To say that the King had been left speechless was an understatement.

     “Better?” Carlos asked. And when no answer came, he leaned in again – only this time, he kissed him chastely on the lips.

     “I can stop,” he then said, though his eyes gave reason to doubt his very words. Luckily for him though, Ben had simply nodded negatively and had pulled the other down into a third kiss himself.

 

**...**

 

     “And apparently I look just like him,” Ulric continued with a small smile, his left hand still entwined with Jane's own and his right settled on the new glass before him, “and though she doesn't say it, I know that she hates looking at me.”

     “That's horrible,” Jane said, mostly because she hadn't a clue as to how to respond to something so honest as that. Or maybe it was the slight buzz that she was now currently feeling – brought on by the overabundance of champagne that they had both been consuming within the past hour.

     “Yeah well it's life – or mine at any rate.”

     “Well I for one,” Jane said, “can't stop looking at you.”

     “And I,” he cut in, “think that we should stop drinking your mother's wine.”

     “No-no,” she said with a giggle, “it's fine. I can replace it before she gets back home.”

     “Yeah,” Ulric chuckled, “that's not the reason why I think we should stop drinking it.”

     She simply laughed and refilled his glass.

     “But it's making me feel more relaxed – 'sides, it was your idea.”

     “Which you were against.”

     “And yet look at me now!” She seized his cup and drank it all in one gulp.

     “I am,” he then said – to which she flushed a scarlet red.

     He couldn't believe it in all honesty, the girl was about as light as a feather when it came to drinking – and yet so much vibrant because of it. Then again, the wine itself wasn't entirely as innocent as it seemed – who knew that Fairy Godmother lived to spike her drinks for an extra flare in life. Sooner or later, he would have to either cut the girl off or reveal to her, mommy's little secret.

     He laughed at his own thoughts, startling the other before she too started laughing once more. Okay, so maybe he wasn't entirely as better off as she was either.

     “That was a nice conversation,” Jane said after her brief giggle fit, “I mean, it was sad and all but I like hearing things about you.”

     “Well you're the first to ever say so.”

     “I find that hard to believe.”

     “Stop.”

     “What?” She teased.

     “You can't,” he said, “use my own words against me.”

     “Oh, do you own them or something?”

     He grinned. “Stop that. Seriously. Or I might have to kiss you with how adorable you're being right now.”

     She leaned over to him – a daring smirk on her rather flushed face. “I dare you.”

     He brought his hands into his lap. “Really...?”

     She nodded and brought her own hand to his shoulder.

     “Or,” she continued with the same smirk, “are you too chicken?”

     Ulric grinned. “I'm not scared of anything.”

     And with that, he claimed her lips...

 

**...**

 

     “Why?” Ben asked after they had parted for what was most likely the one hundredth time.

     “Because,” Carlos purred, now nestled in the others lap with his hands twisted in Ben's own shirt. “I've been wanting to for so long and I just can't help myself anymore.”

     The King took a deep breath and brought his hand up to pull Carlos in once more by the neck.

     One hundred and first time.

     He then grunted. “We should stop though-”

     “Why?” Carlos kissed him again.

     “Because-”

     Again. “Because why?”

     “Just because.” Once more.

     “Buuuuut,” Carlos deviously smirked, “why?”

     Ben glared. “If you ask 'why' one more time I'm gonna-”

     His grin grew as he leaned in to whisper over the other's neck, “...why?”

     In an instant, he was pinned beneath the King – and yet, in that very same fraction of a second, Carlos had managed to weasel his hand into the waistline of Ben's pants – surprising him once more.

     “We shouldn't,” Ben then repeated – his eyes clouded over with the look of absolute shot blown lust.

     “And yet,” Carlos said with his hand trailing south within Ben's pants, “this seems,” he paused to firmly take hold of the others now hardening length, “we should. And I'm starting to think that we should stop playing pretend and get around to where this has actually been heading all along.”

     “What-?”

     “You and I both know that there's a picture of me on my knees with your cock in my mouth that's been waiting to be taken.”

     Where had that come from?

     “Carlos-,” Ben pleaded.

     “Whoa-whoa, what did I just say?”

     Carlos withdrew with a smirk. “Stop the pretenses – no more games.”

     Ben nodded. “...no more games.”

     Carlos shoved him over to the side and onto his back...

 

**...**

 

     Ulric: **I think you're pretty without any make-up on.**

     Jane: **You think I'm funny when I tell the punch line wrong.**

     Ulric: **I knew you got me, when you let your walls come down, down.**

 

     Jane: **Before you met me, I was all right,**

**But things were kinda heavy, you brought me to life,**

**Now every February you'll be my valentine, valentine.**

 

     Ulric and Jane: **Let's just talk, all through the night,**

**There's no need to rush.**

**We can dance until we die,**

**You and I, will be young forever.**

 

**...**

 

     Carlos: **You make me feel like I'm living a teenage dream,**

     Ben: **The way you turn me on, I can't sleep,**

     Ben and Carlos: **Let's run away and don't ever look back,**

      **Don't ever look back.**

 

**...**

 

     Jane: **My heart stops when you look at me.**

     Ulric: **Just one touch, now baby I believe,**

 

**...**

 

     Ben and Carlos: **This is real, so take a chance,**

**And don't ever look back, don't ever look back.**

 

**...**

 

     Jane: **When you're around me, life's like a movie scene,**

     Ulric: **I wasn't happy, until you became my queen.**

     Ulric and Jane: **I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece,**

**I'm complete.**

 

**...**

 

     Carlos: **Let's go all the way tonight,**

**No regrets, just love.**

     Ben and Carlos: **We can dance until we die,**

**You and I, we'll be young forever.**

 

**...**

 

     Ulric and Jane: **You make me feel like I'm living a teenage dream,**

**The way you turn me on, I can't sleep,**

**Let's run away and don't ever look back,**

**Don't ever look back.**

 

**...**

 

     Carlos: **My heart stops when you look at me,**

     Ben: **Just one touch, now baby I believe,**

 

**...**

 

     Ulric and Jane: **This is real, so take a chance,**

**And don't ever look back, don't ever look back.**

 

**...**

 

     Carlos: **I'ma get your heart racing, if that's what you need,**

**In this teenage dream tonight.**

     Ben: **Let you put your hands on me, if that's what you need,**

**In this teenage dream tonight, tonight...**

 

     Ben: **Youuuu,**

 

**...**

 

     Ulric and Jane: **You make me feel like I'm living a teenage dream,**

**The way you turn me on, I can't sleep,**

**Let's runaway and don't ever look back,**

**Don't ever look back.**

 

**...**

 

     Ben: **My heart stops when you look at me,**

     Carlos: **Just one touch, now baby I believe,**

     Ben and Carlos: **This is real, so take a chance,**

 

**...**

 

     Ulric and Jane: **And don't ever look back, don't ever look back.**

 

**...**

 

     Carlos: **I'ma get your heart racing, if that's what you need,**

**In this teenage dream tonight,**

 

**...**

 

     Ulric: **Let you rest your head on me, if that's what you need,**

**In this teenage dream tonight...**

 

 

**...**

 

     Ben grunted as a harsh knock surfaced from his bedroom door-

     “Busy-!”

     It continued – harsher still.

     “I-!”

     “Ben-!?”

     He opened his eyes in an instant upon recognition, forgetting Carlos, down at his knees, as he sprung up to hoist his pants up hastily. All the while, Carlos simply teetered off to the side with a small frown grazing his lips.

     “Sorry,” Ben apologized with a massive flush, trying his best to regain his composure as the pounding at his door continued in speed and strength.

     He opened it to find Evie standing before him, eyes wet and full of tears. She looked like an absolute wreck, which could only mean serious business since the girl never dared to leave her room without absolute perfection upon her face.

     “What is it-?” What's wrong?” His thoughts immediately ran to Mal, spiraling to the possibility that the girl had fled back to the Isle of the Lost – or that she simply hadn't returned to her dorm room at all.

     “It's Mal-”

     So he was right, she was missing – gone. She's skipped town to start fresh – anew, to search the world for that thing that she felt was missing from her life. She hadn't been happy with him, not enough so – and rightfully so for he had been too busy swooning over Carlos to properly care for her. And that was the harsh truth in all of this – the very embodiment fact as to why he felt like the world's biggest asshole right about now. He had failed Mal after everything they've been through – and for what? One of her best friends. They very boy that he had come crying to after the break up because he had been deficient. The very reason for his failure was his hope of salvation.

     “She won't wake up,” Evie rapidly continued, “we were talking and then she just fell over – I've tried everything – and her face was so white – I – I – I just came straight here – and no one answered the door so I broke in around back and – and – and-!”

     “Breathe,” Ben cut in, “Evie – breathe.”

     The girl fell into his arms as her sobs continued by and by – so he brought her into the room and settled her onto the corner of the bed. To his surprise, Carlos hadn't stirred an inch despite his friend's obvious state of mind.

     “Carlos – get up,” he chided as he rummaged around for his shoes. He had previously thrown them across the room during his fit earlier.

     When no reply had come, Evie had turned to the boy herself.

     “Carlos – what? W-why are you here-?” She stalled. “Forget it, just come and help – Mal's...”

     Ben peered upwards from his bent over hunch as the girl shook the boy. After several attempts, she had pulled him flushed against herself.

     “No-no-no!” She screamed as she rocked him back and forth.

     Ben ran to her side and seized her shoulder, and brought Carlos to lay between them – with his head in his lap. He gasped.

     Carlos face was now as white as snow.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Teenage Dream - Katy Perry (with additional lyric changes provided by Boyce Avenue's rendition).  
> I imagine the song being a mixture of the two songs - with Ulric and Jane's being a tad bit more romantic in the sense of Boyce Avenue's, and Ben and Carlos's a bit more upbeat - like Perry's. Over all, I imagine the scene being as sensual as fuck. Haha. Okay, byez.


	7. Look With Your Heart/In the Dark of the Night (Reprise)

     “I came as soon as I could,” Jane exclaimed as she scurried into the open door frame that led into Mal and Evie's dorm room. There – already settled, within, were both Evie and Ben – followed by, respectively, the former King and Queen, who stood overlooking the entire ordeal. Given circumstances aside, Jane found herself as keenly attuned to the situation as if she was at a Sunday mass. Perhaps, even more so, a funeral – but such a thought wasn't as welcomed – so mass it was.

     “How are they?” She asked as both Carlos and Mal came into view. She gasped. They looked dead to her, to the world – lifeless within the bed before all of them.

     “They haven't stirred an inch,” Evie answered, turning to Jane with an outstretched hand. Jane took it, easily and without question, and pulled the other girl into a tight embrace.

     “It'll be alright,” Jane assured her.

     She nodded, and pulled away – just enough so – to look at the second guest trailing behind Jane. Almost immediately, she had gone absolutely still – then-

     “Jay,” Evie muttered, life coming back to her as she ran up and out of Jane's arms and into the taller dark-skinned teen.

     “Where have you been!?” She hollered – her breaths falling against his chest as tears began to wallow up within her eyes. “It's like you haven't been here all year-!”

     "How could you say that?” He asked her in a calm soothing voice, “I've been here this entire time.”

     She balled her fists into his shirt and gave a definite cry.

     “Jay...what are we gonna do?”

     He shrugged against her and dropped his chin to her forehead.

     “We'll think of something.”

     “My mother,” Jane then said as she turned towards Belle, “have you tried contacting her?”

     "We can't get a hold of her,” the woman answered.

     “Why not? She told me herself that you would be able to contact her should anything arise.”

     Belle nodded. “Which is true, however...there seems to be something in our way. The signal won't go through.”

     “What signal?” Evie asked, her face still half concealed within Jay's chest.

     Belled turned to her husband – as though out of fear – but he simply nodded to her and took a deep breath. “It's magic,” he answered honestly – and after a moment,“it was solely meant for emergencies. But it's as if-” he paused to aim a solemn, and quite possibly guilty, look towards both Evie and Jay,“theres...”

     “A barrier,” she guessed. The man nodded and looked on over to his son, who – since they're immediate arrival upon the scene – had remained as quiet as a tomb.

     “The good news,” he then continued, his eyes still trained on Ben's face – who in turn was staring down upon his two friends, “is that they are in fact alive.”

     “They have a pulse – ” Belle added, “it's faint but-”

     “Then counter it,” Jay said. “I mean, it's magic, right?” He motioned towards the two,“it's obviously a sleeping curse-”

     “Of course,” Evie then cut in. “A kiss – true loves kiss-!” She quickly moved on over to Ben's side. “Ben – you have to kiss Mal, it's the only way. And then... Oh no.” She paled and took a single step back. “What about Carlos? He doesn't have a true love.” She whipped her head round to Jay. “Does he?”

     The boy shrugged.

     “We'll rescue Mal first then,” Evie said, turning back to Ben. “Maybe she'll have another answer. Well, what are you waiting for Ben? – Do it!”

     “Evie,” Jay said as he placed a gentle hand upon her shoulder.

     “What-!?”

     “You're being-”

     “It won't work.”

     Evie looked to Ben once more. “What do you mean it won't work?”

     He turned to Mal, but then leveled his hand with Carlos's own.

     “I don't think I'm in love with Mal,” Ben said.

     “But love is love,” Belle countered, coming to her son's aid with a small timid smile upon her lips, “yes, you may be young – so it may not be truly absolute but love can-”

     “Mom – I-”

     “You're scared,” she continued. “I understand. Believe me, I was once in a place where I was-”

     “I don't love her!” He paused – as though startled by his own words. “I...I thought I did – I... Well, I do – love her, that is. But not in the way that I once thought...maybe not in the way that we need.” He met his mother's eyes. “I'm not exactly sure how I feel – but...” He then turned to his dad.

     He paused once more.

     “What is it, son?” Adam asked, his face evidently full of worry. He came forward – Ben stepped back.

     He turned towards the floor. “I...I...I don't know.”

     Ben pushed past the man and fled from the room, slamming the door shut behind him in his wake.

     “Where is he going-?” Adam asked as he began to follow – but his movements were initially cut short by Belle's own outstretched hand upon his chest.

     "Dear,” she said with a strong notion of compassion, “let me.”

     And though deeply rooted to protest, Adam nodded and allowed her to bypass him.

 

     He hated himself – not for the way he was feeling, mind you – or perhaps yes, for that very reason – but above all else, for storming out like a child from the mere sight of his father's eyes. Hadn't he accepted his role? Hadn't he accepted the very fact of his infatuation? He sighed. Well, no – he hadn't, not really – for perhaps 'fascination' wasn't even close to how he was truly feeling... Perhaps the word 'perhaps' wasn't even acceptable either. To say that he loved Carlos was a big understatement in and around itself – and yet the very idea of that 'love' as it was then was only said and foreclosed to himself. Now though – with the boy's very life on the line, and Mal's too, he has to come out and proclaim said love to not only his friends – their friends – but his parents... His mother... His father...

     And perhaps – with perhaps being once more, unacceptable – that was the true reason for why he hated himself right now. He, Ben – newly crowned King – couldn't even look his parents in the eye and tell them the truth of his love for the small, yet-kindly-adorable-and-sickeningly-sweet-black-and-white-haired-deviled-newly-turned-dog-lover, De Vil boy.

     He brought his face to the stone wall before him and sighed once more.

     “I haven't seen you this riled up since that day your father asked you to handle the council of sidekicks.”

     Immediately, he had turned around.

     “Mom-”

     She held up her hand to him, effectively stalling any further words, and came to hover just before him – just out of his reach.

     “I imagine that this must all be very difficult for you.”

     Ben nodded but kept his face cold – even as he felt the tears wallowing up within his irises. If he cried – which he was most likely inclined to do – he wouldn't hide it, not from her. Not ever.

     “...I imagine that you're right. That your kiss won't work on her because...well, you love another.”

     Another nod – he heaved, tears as clear as day were now beginning to trek down his face.

     “And I imagine,” she continued lightly with a hand upon his cheek, “that this 'another' is the very boy that lays with her... You're in love with Cruella's son, aren't you?”

     He fell into her. “Mom – I'm sorry – I'm-”

     “No – no,” she hushed as she brought him into her – and though physically taller, he fell into her chest quite easily and without effort. He was, as once then, just a young little boy in need of guidance – in need of his mother and all of her motherly affections.

     “I-I,” he faltered, his voice rising as his tears continued, “I don't know what to do...”

     “Oh, darling,” she soothed as she cupped his face.

     “I love him – but I...I'm sorry.”

     “Never apologize,” she said, inclining him to look her in the eyes once more, “not when it comes to love – not with the heart – not ever.”

 

     Belle: **Love's a curious thing,**

**It often comes disguised.**

**Look at love the wrong way,**

**It goes un-recognized.**

**So look with your heart,**

**And not with your eyes.**

**A heart understands.**

**A heart never lies.**

**Believe what it feels,**

**And trust what it shows.**

**Look with your heart,**

**The heart always knows.**

**Love is not always beautiful,**

**Not at the start.**

**So open your arms,**

**And close your eyes tight.**

**Look with your heart,**

**And when it finds love,**

**Your heart will be right.**

**Learn from someone who knows,**

**Make sure you don't forget.**

**Love you misunderstand,**

**Is love that you'll regret.**

     

     Ben: **Look with your heart,**

**And not with your eyes.**

**The heart can't be fooled,**

     Belle: **The heart is too wise.**

     Ben: **Forget what you think,**

     Belle: **Ignore what you hear.**

     Belle and Ben: **Look with your heart,**

**It always sees clear.**

 

     Ben: **Love is not always beautiful,**

**Not at the start.**

     Belle: **But open your arms,**

**And close your eyes tight.**

**Look with your heart,**

**And when it finds love,**

**Your heart will be right.**

  
  


     “We, your father and I,” Belle said with a gentle smile, “will always love you. No matter what.”

     “Really?” Ben asked.

     “Really,” Adam answered, turning from his hidden place around the corner. He came towards the pair and pulled both of them into a warm hug. “The heart,” he then said with an awkward smile, looking down at his son, “never lies, after all. If your mother could give this beast a try, then who are we to deny you to try the same with the pup?”

     “The pup?” Ben smiled.

     Adam shrugged. “What can I say?” He leaned over to brush his lips across Belle's cheek, “the little ones always get to me.” She giggled.

     Ben beamed at his parents for a moment but then pulled away from their embrace.

     He turned cold for a brief second. “I have to try,” he then said with a slight nod of his head, “maybe...maybe I'm enough for Carlos.”

     Adam grinned as they returned to the dorm room – and at once, Ben moved over to Carlos's end, not wishing to stall any further on explanations for the three still present, and leaned over to face the boy directly.

     “Please,” he said within a whisper, “don't leave me.”

     And with that, he leaned over to press a light kiss to Carlos's mouth...

 

**...**

 

     “Mother!” Ulric called out, staring into the deep abyss that the stream of mist had brought forth to him, “I know you're there – so show yourself.”

     “My – my, so demanding,” the woman joked as her face surfaced before him.

     “Where have you been?”

     “Oh,” the woman laughed, “I'm sorry – would you rather play detective then ask me that question of yours? You know, the one about the vile I gave you.”

     “What did you do?”

     “I didn't do anything,” she grinned, “it was you.”

     “But you gave it to me-!”

     “And I told you specifically to only use a single drop – but no, you poured the entire bottle into the chocolate mix-!” She roared with laughter as Ulric turned away. All at once, he caught a split image of himself within the broken glass plane of the grandfather clock that stood to his side.

     It struck the hour – releasing a white dove on a motorized track...

     “Ah – I see that you're still at the little tramp's house.”

     “I'm waiting for her to come back,” Ulric said. “She was summoned by the King because her two friends have been cursed.”

     “And you automatically suspected me, is that right?”

     “It was you – I know it was because she had told me earlier that she had given them some of the chocolates-”

     “'Twas you,” Ursula corrected.

     “Whatever,” Ulric rebutted, “the point is – they're in a coma-state, mother. This wasn't a part of the plan – they're one of us.”

     “What can I say?” She chuckled, “sometimes you have to break a few oysters to get a pearl.”

     “You knew,” Ulric then said, “you knew that I put too much in the chocolate and yet you didn't stop me.”

     “If you're insisting that I purposely watched as you murdered the other descendants then you, sir, are fiendishly correct.”

     “And what if Jane had been placed in a coma too!?”

     “Then ol'mommy dear would have come back in an instant to rescue her daughter-”

     “You placed a barrier though – cutting off contact.”

     “Easily fixed. Girl goes down, barrier gets cut, mother fairy shows up – I trick her into giving me the wand for her daughter's safety – everybody wins!”

     “But-”

     “No 'buts' about it, Ulric. Your little girlfriend, as of now, is safe – because she didn't eat any of the chocolates. Really now, I don't understand why you're so upset about this.”

     “She isn't my-” Ulric paused. “Wait, she didn't eat the chocolates?”

     “No,” Ursula answered with a sly grin. “So the answer to your next question is 'yes', she was willingly giving herself to you earlier, dear. Congrats. Well, to be fair, she was a bit under the influence but that is neither here nor there.”

     “I don't care about that,” Ulric said.

     “Of course you do,” Ursula said in return, “and it isn't your fault. You see, I was a bit mad at first – falling for a goodie-little-two-shoes like her is so sad and desperate, Ulric – it's very unsuitable. Downright childish. But then mommy did some thinking. I sheltered you all your life – kept you hidden away from the world for so long that no one knows that you even exist. Not even those other descendant children. So it's only logical that you fall for the first harlot you try to swindle. It's rather adorable actually – first love.”

     “I do not love her!”

     “Then prove it!” The woman whisked her hand as she shot forward, disrupting the vision of water. “Show me that you are still my son – deny your love and help me seize what we've been aiming for all year!”

     “I will, Mother-”

     She cackled as a wave of water lashed out to strike Ulric squarely in the face.

  
     Ursula: **I have hope that your evil will quickly return!**

**Fix your hair and a dash of cologne for that smell!**

**With the Pieces waiting in place!**

**You'll put her down in her place!**

**Bid goodbye – no more disgrace!**

**Farewell...**  
  


     Ulric: **In the dark of the night terror will strike her.**

     Ursula: **Terror's the least you can do!**

     Ulric: **In the dark of the night evil will brew.**

 

     Ursula: **Soon she will learn that her nightmares were real.**

**In the dark of the night,**

**She'll be through!**

 

     Ulric: **In the dark of the night,**

**Evil will find her,**

     Ursula: **Find her!**

     Ulric: **In the dark of the night terror comes true.**

     Ursula: **Doom her!**

      **My dear, here's a sign**

**It's the end of the line!**

     Ulric: **In the dark of the night...**

     Ursula: **In the dark of the night...**

     Ulric: **In the dark of the night...**

     Ursula: **She'll be yours!**

 

     “Convince her,” Ursula chuckled as another wave lapped around Ulric's form, “to take out her mother's wand. Tell her that it's the only way to save her precious little friends.”

     “Can it?” Ulric asked.

     The woman shrugged. “I guess we shall see. If not, well – it's all for the cause, dear.”

 

**...**

 

     “It didn't work,” Ben sighed, standing to his full height over Carlos's form.

     “I don't understand,” Belle said as she took her husbands hand, “loves true kiss should have worked.”

     “It might be more powerful,” Jane answered, “perhaps a kiss isn't the answer.”

     “Then what is?” Jay asked, finally speaking up. Though he had been speechless by Ben's sudden forwardness – much like Evie and Jane – with their somewhat younger friend, he was regrettably filled with disappointment over the outcome set forth before them. These sort of things were supposed to end with a kiss, after all – that's how it went. Now, sure he had been caught by surprise – as mentioned – seeing as he had suspected all along that Carlos had feelings for Ben but had never once thought it the other way around – or mutually put – or, wait-

     “You have the hots for Carlos?” Jay asked.

     “Not important,” Evie immediately answered with a light flush upon her cheeks. A fact that Jay didn't completely understand seeing as she hadn't been the one mouth raping their friend a moment ago.

     “Yes,” Ben answered – much to everyone's surprise,“I do. What of it?”

     “Nothing,” Jay said, “just checking.”

     “That aside,” Evie started.

     “Hold up,” Jay cut in. “Just one more question – are you two a thing then?”

     “Can't we settle this later?” Evie shot back. “We'll play a round of guess my sexuality when we have both Mal and Carlos back, alright?”

     Jay nodded.

     “It's magic,” a voice then said as the door to the room opened.

     “Ulric,” Jane greeted, and though she was quite happy to see him, her face had remained solemnly sad – not that he blamed her, of course.

     “This was created out of magic,” he continued, “it's evident. So perhaps there's a counter spell that can undo it.”

     “Who are you?” Jay asked as he looked over the other boy.

     “This is,” Jane answered with a stall, “my...uh – he's my-”

     “I'm her boyfriend,” he answered with a polite smile, “my name is Ulric.”

     “A pleasure,” Evie chimed in – to which Belle nodded to.

     “Though I wish it were on better terms,” he then said. “At any rate, I've seen this type of case before – though it's not as famously lit as other sleeping curses, which are usually broken by a kiss, it's just as permanent.”

     “What do you suppose we do?” Belle asked from her place by the window.

     He gave a slight bow to the woman before answering. “The wand – Fairy-godmother's wand might be able to break it in no time.”

     “Well that's a problem,” Ben said, finally looking to the newly arrived guest.

     “He's right,” Adam continued, “we can't get a hold of her.”

     “Then perhaps Jane could-”

     “Me?” Jane asked as she pulled away from Ulric.

     “Yeah,” he nodded, “you are it's keeper, aren't you? Just like your mother?”

     “No – well, yes, I am but-”

     “He's right,” Ben then chimed in, “you are – it's your duty.” He turned to his parents. “She can try it.”

     “No,” Jane said, “don't you remember what happened the last time?”

     “You were scared,” Ulric explained, “the magic was too unfocused. If you try again with a clear head-”

     “But we don't have a spell-”

     “Mal's book,” Evie said, “she has a sleeping curse – she has multiple curses – maybe one of the counter spells from those could break it-!”

     “Excuse me,” Belle cut in, “just how many curses are in this book exactly?”

     “Oh,” Evie flushed, “not a lot – nothing too serious. I was exaggerating.”

     “They're a good bet,” Ulric said, turning to Jane. “What do you say?”

     All eyes turned to the girl then, but hers were solely fixated on the boy before her.

     “I'm not sure...” She answered.

     “You told me,” Ulric then said as he brought the girl closer to him,“that you wanted to prove yourself to your mother, right?” She nodded. “Well, this might be your chance. If it fails – then we try something else – but if it works and you succeed, you'll have your friends back and your mother's favor.”

     “...what if I make things worse?”

     “You won't.” He leaned in to brush his lips against hers. “Because I believe in you.” She fell against him with a hesitant nod.

     “Come on,” he pressed, pulling her away from the others, “let's get that wand.”

 

     “I don't trust that guy,” Jay said as he paced up and down the room, pocketing several trinkets out of sheer habit alone,“something about him-”

     “He's helping,” Ben said with a sigh, “we may not know him, but at least he's helping.”

     “Is he?” Jay spat back, “because look – I get it, you look for the good in everything and everyone but something about that guy is rubbing me the wrong way.”

     “Mal said the same thing,” Evie confessed from her place at Mal's side.

     “Had she known him?” Belle asked, still by the window.

     “No,” she answered, “we saw him through my magic mirror though – after Jane had told us about him.”

     “You see?' Jay questioned, “Mal's an excellent judge of character.”

     “She hated me when we first met,” Evie interjected.

     “For reasons,” the boy defended. “But when it came down to it – personal grudges aside – she could spot a thief a mile away.”

     After a moment, Evie looked up to Ben from her seat, “hes not wrong.”

     “Well,” Adam spoke, taking charge of the situation since his son seemed too preoccupied with his thoughts, “where does he come from – who are his parents? I have never set eyes on him before in my life.”

     “It's impossible to know everyone, dear.” Belle cut in, speaking with hesitant words - as though she didn't believe them herself.

     “Be it so – he must have family here.”

     “I”m telling you,” Jay continued, “there's something about him.”

     “Thief or no thief,” Ben finally said, turning to regard the others,“villain – hero – whichever. Hes helping us. And as far as I'm concerned, that's the only thing that matters. If he can bring Mal back-,” he deeply inhaled and turned to the floor,"if he can bring Carlos back," - his eyes rose to meet Jay's - "then so be it.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs:  
> Look With Your Heart - Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Love Never Dies'.  
> In the Dark of the Night - Anastasia. (Lyrics were altered just as then).


	8. Poor Unfortunate Souls

     “Are you sure about this?” Jane asked as she came face to face with her mother's wand – the most precious artifact of enchantment within the museum, aside from Maleficient's own spinning wheel. Or well – in the eyes of Auradon that is. Jane herself felt that there were other artifacts much worthier of such a title but that was a fact that laid neither here nor there entirely. The going point of all of this was that her mother's wand was the only relic that still held magic within it – that could be wielded by anyone and everyone. Or rather – anyone that could handle such power.

     She sighed. Mother always told her that with great power came great-

     “Are you nervous?”

     Jane whipped round to face Ulric – who hovered just beyond her right shoulder. If he was as unsure about all of this as she was, he didn't show it – and to that, Jane was quite grateful. God knows one of them had to keep herself from falling over in terror.

     “No,” she lied, turning back to the wand.

     “It's alright if you are,” he then said. “There's no shame in being scared-”

     “If this going to be a pep talk,” Jane cut in with a light nervous chuckle, “then just save it because the longer this plays out the less likely I'm going to be able to go through with this.”

     Ulric laughed. “Fair enough.”

     Jane nodded – whether to herself or Ulric, she didn't really know – and came forward to pass her arm through the force field around the wand. She slipped passed the barrier easily, sliding in as if it wasn't even there. And in a way, it wasn't – not for her.

     She turned to give another tentative glance to Ulric but wrapped her fingers around the relic and brought it away from the light and into the dimly lit room of the museum. She had, in all actuality, expected such a grand ceremoniously occurrence to occur in that moment – for a wave of awes or a sudden rush of light and wind to encase around her – some hint of the strong and powerful magic that laid within. But it was all relatively normal – quiet.

     She sighed, and gave yet another light chuckle.

     “Good,” Ulric nodded from behind her, stepping closer. “Now let's go save your friends. Here – you want me to carry it?”

     “What?” She asked.

     “The wand,” he pressed, “you look like you might faint. Would you rather I carry it?”

     She kept staring at the wand before her. “No. I'm fine. 'Sides, as it's protector I shouldn't hand it off to just anyone.”

     “Fair point,” Ulric said, “but then again – I'm not just anyone.”

     “No, no-” she said in return, “you're not – I didn't mean it like that, but still.” She turned back to the wand. “Only I am to wield it.”

…

     “Where are they?” Ben asked, his face pressed up against the fine glass of the window before him – he didn't care of keeping up appearances now, he was a wreck – in truth, they all were.

     The glass rippled a fraction.

     “Careful,” Belle soothed, bringing him towards her and away from the window, “you're going to shatter the glass-”

     “I don't care-!” He roared, “they should have been here by now-!”

     “Son-” Adam warned, coming to his wife's aid.

     “It's alright,” Belle cut in, “he's hurt – you're hurting-” She brought her open palm to Ben's face, “mind your temper, dear.”

     He wanted to protest – oh, how he did – but he simply nodded into her hand instead.

     “I'm sure all is well,” She then pressed.

     “It must be,” Evie added, “everything always works out in the end.”

     “Not always,” Ben whispered, looking to Carlos with cold dead eyes. He had cried every last ounce of tears earlier – now he was simply a dry spell – a cold broken shell of the man he was once before.

     “Don't say that,” Evie countered, “it's happily ever after – that's how it ends. It's as they say – all-”

     “Will come to a happy end-!” Jane finished, throwing open the door of the bedroom, which caused it to skitter and tear off it's hinges from the immense magnitude of power that had erupted from her own hand. She teetered – the wand sparked. “Oops.”

     “Quite an entrance,” Belle mused as she tried to hide the slight discoloring of her face.

     “It's been buzzing since downstairs,” Jane explained.

     “It's recognizing your wish,” Ulric explained, “your mother's wand can sense what you're seeking.”

     “You know a lot about it,” Jay cut in.

     “I study a lot.”

     “Did you find a spell?” Jane then asked, turning to Evie.

     “Yes,” she exclaimed, “at least I think I did – it seems to be right. I'm sure that it's right.”

     “It's our only shot,” Ben chimed.

     Jane took hold of Mal's spell book – giving it a once over as she gripped the wand even tighter between her fingers. “I – uh, I -” she faltered and turned to Ulric. “Do you really believe that I can do this?”

     “Yes,” He answered almost immediately, “I do.”

     She nodded – the others simply stared.

     “I revoke this curse,” She said, reading aloud, “let it be no more...”

     The wand sparked once more. “I revoke this curse,” she repeated, “let it be no more-!”

     Suddenly, as though summoned from within, the air in the room shifted...

     “I revoke this curse, let it be no more!”

     The room shook violently as a casing of silver light cascaded around Jane's form...

     “I revoke this curse, let it be no more!!!”

     The light erupted into a blinding explosion – and all at once, the bed carrying both Carlos and Mal rose and fell to the floor-

     “What's happening?” Belle called out, which was then met by an immense roar that pierced into the day – then, silence.

     The room fell to absolute darkness.

 

**...**

 

     “My – my, what a marvelous introduction.”

     The voice rose within the dimly lit room – just above a whisper at first, but then-

     “Whose there?” Jane instantly whipped round but she couldn't see anyone or anything before her. For it was dark – cloudy – dank. “What-?” She turned once more. Still nothing.

     She drew the wand out, sparking a faint glow within it to life, and gasped. The room around her was in shambles – the furniture was dislodged, and the north wall that looked outward was entirely gone, as though it had been blasted away from within. And perhaps it had been.

     Night, she had also noted, had definitely fallen.

     “Oh, no,” she whispered to herself.

     The faint glow of the wand sparked heavier – somewhere, below her or possibly outside came the sound of muffled voices – passers no doubt, spectators of the imminent show at hand.

     A figure to her left twitched to life.

     “Evie?” Jane called out. The other girl remained unconscious though, but her over all appearance seemed fine. She was dirty, but just so.

     “Oh, yes,” the same heavyset voice from before said.

     “Jane?”

     The girl then turned to her right to see Ben lying on his side, his face full of ash and soot and his arms full of-

     “Ben,” she cried, “I'm sorry – it didn't work – I don't know what happened – I-”

     It was then that she perceived and recognized the boy within the King's arms – a boy who was now awake and looking up at her with the most perplexed look she had ever received.

     “Carlos!?”

     “Hi,” he greeted weakly, a small unsure smile placed neatly upon his lips.

     “It worked,” she then whispered, mostly for her own benefit, “I did it – but then why-”

     “Oh, yes,” the voice then said, speaking up once more, “you did it. Oh, how you've done it.”

     The trio turned – and from the same source from below as before, a round of shrieks was met, which were closely followed by pattering feet. A figure then emerged from the rubble of where the wall once stood – a figure that snaked itself up and into the room with the help of six massively built tentacles...

     “Surprised?” The sea witch asked, coming forward.

     “Ursula,” Ben said just above a whisper, “but how? You-”

     “None of that,” the woman barked, “I'm here – and that's all that matters, child.”

     “Impossible,” another voice said.

     Jane turned once more.

     “Mal!” She shouted – to which the purple-haired girl faintly acknowledged to with a nod of her head.

     “You should be on that damn island still.”

     “And a hello to you too,” Ursula chuckled, “really now, hasn't Auradon taught you any manners?”

     “No, not really,” Mal spat, “it's not all rainbows and sunshine here, you know.”

     “So I've heard,” she said, “it seems to me that the lot of these brats are as ruthless and cutthroat as those on the Isle. Funny how that works out, ain't it?”

     “What are you doing here?” 

     The woman laughed. “Think of it as payment – or rather, payback.” Her grin flourished as a tentacle slid closer to them. “Now!”

     Jane suddenly pelted forward as she was tackled from behind, her face slamming harshly into the floor boards as her assailant ripped the wand from her bare hands. “Stop – no – don't-!” She fought against the arms and legs, and pried the wand back - “that's mine!”

     “Give it here!” Ursula cackled as she seized both Carlos and Ben.

     Mal, dodging the third tentacle, jumped forward and brought her boot to the others face.

     “Run!” She hollered as she quickly pried Jane up from the floor. In her stupor though, she had fallen back and into a now broken table. Jay, seemingly, resided here as well - though he was as far gone as Evie was at the moment.

     “Could really use your help right about now,” Mal muttered as she brought her hand to the other girl's head. It was then that Jane realized that blood was rushing down her own face.

     “Get the wand!” Ursula hollered as she seized Mal by her boot. She lifted the girl up into the air and threw her to the other side of the room where the King and Queen resided – their own predicaments were quite unclear to her at the moment though.

     The assailant from before rose to face Jane.

     “Stop,” she said, her vision now swaying in and out of focus. She brought her hand to her own head, instantly it was coated over in her own blood.

     “Just give it here...”

     Jane seized in her swaying – her brows knitted closely together – she forced herself to concentrate with all of her might – “Ulric?”

     He came down to her side, his face full of absolute worry and hurt, but most evidently – remorse.

     “You?” She called out as she was forced into submission – her back pressed up against the floor. She immediately released the wand upon his tug – as though her hands hadn't ever been touching it.

     Ulric frowned but rose and turned away from the girl to look up at Ursula. He stepped towards her.

     “But why...?” Jane asked.

     He briefly stopped in his tracks, “because she's my mother,” and handed her the wand.

     “Finally!” Ursula beamed with a definite cackle, “it's mine – the world is ours!”

     Jane motioned to sit up but quickly fell back to the floor. “I trusted you!” She screamed.

     Ulric turned to face her.

     “I – I,” she moved again, “you said I was-!”

     “All petty words,” Ursula laughed as she came to her son's side, “petty pretty words, my dear. And you fell for every last one of them!”

     “...how could you?”

     “How could he?” Ursula spat, “how could anyone, dear? How could anyone ever bestow acts of cruelty upon each other – the answer? Power, wealth, control.” She turned to Ben. “Certainly your people could relate to that, couldn't they? But now it's our turn.”

     “What's that supposed to mean?” Ben asked as the woman's tentacles finally released him and the others.

     “That's what you're all going to find out.” She turned towards the heavens. “I call upon all the powers of the universe – bibbidi – bobbidi – boo!”

     Suddenly, a green flare-like spark rose from the wand and shot out into the open night sky...

 

     Ursula: **And now you poor unfortunate souls,**

**Times up,**

**You're through,**

**Now the power of Ursula has been once again made whole,**

**All the magic of this wand,**

**And the world in my control,**

**And now dark shall reign forever,**

**Over ocean, sea, and shore,**

 

     The spark exploded into the night – and all at once the entire room was consumed by hellish flames of emerald green...

     “Reverse the moon and sun,” Ursula screamed, “turn back tide and time-”

     ...the flames whirled and tore at the room, erasing everything in it's path.

     “Jane!” Mal screamed as the girl fell to the flames, but her cries were cut short.

     “Unravel all of the happily ever afters to the moments our troubles began!”

     ...Ben tried to pull Carlos closer still as the flames advanced upon them.

     “Don't let go-” Carlos hollered.

     “Never-!”

     “Now see for yourself how banishment feels!” Ursula laughed.

     All too suddenly, Carlos was ripped away from Ben's arms-

     “Carlos!”

 

     Ursula: **You poor unfortunate soul!**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, it's been awhile and I am so sorry for that - I've been busy.  
> Anyhow, I updated so there's that - I had been so anxious to get to this part when I had first started writing this so I'm so shocked at how long it's taken to reach this point but...yeah.  
> Hopefully you've enjoyed it thus far. Okay - bye!
> 
> Song: Poor Unfortunate Souls (Reprise) - The Little Mermaid (Broadway).


	9. Once Upon A December/No One Is Alone

     Carlos awoke with a start.

     “Where-?” He turned to his immediate left, hoping to find his newly-reunited-with 'king' still nestled besides him – but he wasn't there. He was alone, and it was dark – oh so very dark.

     “Carlos?”

     He turned once more to see Mal – who was well awake and sitting across from him. She, in her haste, had tried to lean in closer to him herself but the iron bars between them had forbidden her from properly doing so. She groaned.

     “I hate these bars – and this stupid room, and this stupid fuckin'-!”

     “Where are we?”

     The girl ceased in her musings - “a cage, yeah – you heard that right. We've been placed in cages – like fucking birds.”

     Carlos peered round at their surroundings. All was dark – all was cold, from the stone walls to the high ceilings – and down to the floor, which laid below them – about a yard or so – perhaps more. He didn't know, for he couldn't properly do the math from where he was currently sitting.

     His cage swung a bit as he inched over to the girl.

     “Why?” He asked.

     “Because we remember,” a third voice answered.

     He turned towards the ceiling.

     “Jane?”

     The girl nodded from her place above them – from yet another cage, which gently swung from the ceiling as she moved about to peer down at him. Mal had been right. They had all been bared within cages – all strung up via chains and gears that hooked up into the ceiling.

     “The world is different out there,” the girl then continued, “I can see it from this window up here-” She motioned over to the small hole in the wall that was to her immediate right, “villains are walking about the streets of Auradon – and...”

     “And?” Carlos asked.

     “The heroes,” Mal answered, “they've been placed within the Isle-”

     “How do you know that?”

     “We've been awake longer than you,” Jane answered, “we overhead-”

     “Well – well – well,” a voice said from below, instantly cutting the girl off, “it's about time.”

     Ursula swept up and closed in on the trio as best she could, using her tentacles as leverage to hoist herself up the chains and into their space, “I thought you would never wake up, my dears.” She turned to Jane, “especially you – that had been a nasty fall after all. But it seems the time loop has fixed you over, and for the better I might add – you look absolutely radiant if I do say so myself.”

     “What did you do?” Carlos immediately asked.

     “Nothing that 'they' hadn't already done to us,” the woman answered, “as I said before – it's simply payback – nothing more, nothing less.”

     “But you deserved it!” Jane shrieked, “those people – their-!”

     “Children?” Ursula cut in, “you think their children have it rough? What about our children-!?” She turned to both Mal and Carlos, “what about you? Did you deserve to be damned because of your parents? Did we deserve to be cast aside on an island entirely made up of garbage and scraps? We were all better off dead, but they,” she pointed a harsh cold finger at Jane, “rose us back to life – and for what? To force us to watch as they celebrated in our anguish. Our 'punishment'.”

     “That's not true,” Jane whispered from her place.

     The woman practically beamed. “Oh, but it is – in fact, it's very true. You see children, there are always two sides to every story – and I'm afraid that no one has been completely honest with any of you – not even your parents. Atlas, that is through no fault of their own though...”

     “What do you mean?” Mal asked.

     “When we were brought back from the grave, those so called heroes took our memories,” Ursula answered, “but they couldn't take our hatred, so they simply removed our reasons-”

     “What?”

     “We couldn't remember why we hated the royals – why we did what we did, 'cause it didn't matter – not to them, or the world – taking our reasons simply justified why we were discarded as 'villains'. It made them feel better when we were simply just evil, and not human.”

     “Mother never told me-” Jane cut in.

     “She was the woman behind it all!” Ursula barked, “she took her wand and erased all of our memories – except one.” She grinned. “You see, before I was to lose my own I took them from myself, and planted them within a shell before the Isle was extracted from magic. Shells are of a rare quality, they can house whatever you put within them even against a barrier with the right spell. They remain to be as strong as squid ink. Once banished, I took to the shell and wore it at all times – knowing one day that I would break it. At the time, I hadn't known this of course – but my past self had held reassurance that the shell wouldn't last forever – and it hadn't. Luckily for me, my idiot of a son had dropped it one afternoon, releasing my memories to me. At first I had been mad, scolding-ly so, but then pleased – and so, our plans began. We simply waited, for many many years, but finally we caught a break – with the four of you.” She smirked up at Jane. “And then you. For my son tells me that you're the reason why we got out-”

     “Me-...?” Jane asked weakly.

     Ursula nodded. “Yes, for you broke the barrier, my dear – during the coronation – you of all people-”

     “But why would they take your reasons though?” Mal asked, cutting off the sea witch altogether.

     “Because,” she answered, “some of those reasons don't exactly paint the heroes in the nicest light.”

     “Why though?” Jane asked, speaking up once more, “what could they have possibly done?”

     “They created us,” Ursula answered after a pause, “here now. I'll show you... Bibbidi bobbidi boo!”

     The room erupted into a green inferno once more, just as before – opening the heavens and the walls of the cell until the flames danced about them merrily...

 

     Ursula: **Hardship lives,**

**Memories,**

**Things I only remember,**

**And a song someone sings,**

**Once upon a December.**

 

     The image of a young girl came to Mal – a beautiful girl with fair skin and emerald eyes.

     In a way, she could have passed for Mal herself – and yet the most crucial and providential fact remained, the girl before her was none other than her very own mother.

 

     Maleficent: **Someone holds me safe and warm,**

 

      _At her side, she is met with a rather gawky yet sweet looking young lad – who immediately came to her with a grace of warmth and kindness..._

 

     Maleficent: **Horses prance through a silver storm,**

**Figures dancing gracefully,**

     Ursula: **Across my memory...**

 

      _All at once, a sixteen year old version of her mother emerged with the most beautiful pair of golden wings that Mal had never-ever known – and flew, not casually so – nor threateningly, but rather gracefully – as though there had been but no true care in the world._

_She then landed, a smile plaguing her lips as the same boy from before, only slightly older, greeted her with a rose. She then frowned._

_“Oh. Why did you kill this poor flower?” She asked._

_“It's for you,” he answered._

_“Why would you think that I would want you to harm it? It has done no wrong to me.”_

_“No,” he frowned, “I meant it as a gift – I didn't, I wasn't thinking. I didn't realize that I was harming it by wanting to give it to you.”_

_“Why would you want to give it to me?”_

_“As a token,” he flushed, “of my...of my love for you.” He quickly clambered up onto his toes and rose to meet her face, giving her a quick peck upon her lips. “T-that was another token – it was true loves kiss, you see. I love you, Mal -”_

_“What is true loves kiss?”_

_He looked to his feet, “only the most powerful thing in the universe – or so I'm told.”_

 

     “Is that your father?” Carlos asked, peering at Mal who only continued to stare at the image before her. When he turned back himself though, it had changed.

 

      _Before them was now a physically ill old man who spoke to a crowd of stragglers – or perhaps they were his own kinsmen for he seemed to be of noble wealth and blood. “I want that witch found,” the old man spat, “with her gone, the land of the west shall be ours. Mark my words, men – he who kills Maleficent shall reign over my kingdom after I am gone.”_

 

     Ursula: **Someone holds me safe and warm,**

 

      _Maleficent returned into frame – she smirked, calling forth the boy from earlier – only he had now grown into a handsome young man._

 

     And she, Carlos noted, – Maleficent – had grown into quite a beautiful young woman.

 

      _He offered her a chalice – “thirsty?” – to which she drank from without hesitation._

_“What did the king say?” She then asked._

_“As I said,” he answered with a frown, “he wants you dead...but I will not let harm come to you though. Nor your land.”_

_“The Moors are not mine,” she corrected, “but that is great news...I have missed you terribly so over these past years.”_

_“I know,” he said, “and I'm sorry.”_

_“I forgive you,” she smiled, “it was all but folly and ambition – but still, I forgive you. For now,” she paused to nestle her head beneath his chin, “all can be as it had been long ago.”_

_Her eyes slipped shut..._

 

     Ursula: **Horses prance through a silver storm,**

 

      _The scene cut off – but then opened to the early morning._

_The boy, was now long gone, but Maleficent..._

_She rose – hesitantly so, as though fragile – from the roots of the mangled tree overhead. Before her, the mist raked over the lake, giving off the sense of dread and gloom. She clambered up, shaking as her hands instinctively ran to her back._

_She arched forward – her pale lips parting..._

_Her hands came to where her wings once resided, only they were now gone..._

_She struggled to find words – to find anything..._

_Her eyes briskly scanned the horizon – the trees – the water..._

_She screamed._

_So terrible – so unpleasant, so full of hurt, worry, and despair..._

_She fell to the earth with her hands encasing around her breasts..._

_She laid broken._

 

     In truth, her mother's tears had startled Mal as she herself began to cry.

 

     Ursula: **Figures dancing gracefully,**

 

      _“Long live King Stefan-!”_

      _A wake of applause rang forth from the throne room before them, where the boy was now being crowned King of the land. Behind him, stood Maleficient's wings – encased and lifeless, shut away within a cold golden glass casket. They were but a mere trophy now._

_Instantly – or rather, years later – but still instant in regards to the image – baby Aurora emerged into the picture – Maleficent coming shortly herself. The wings were now gone from the room, but in it's place sat King Stefan's wife._

_“Oh dear,” Maleficent than said with a chuckle, “what an awkward situation.”_

_The scene fell to black, but her words continued on – as though etched through time and space. And in a way, they were – for the words were known far and wide._

_“She shall prick her finger on a spinning wheel-”, what came next though – truly surprised Mal and the others, “only awakened by true loves kiss...”_

 

     Maleficent: **Across my memory...**

 

     “I thought those were the fairies words?” Carlos quietly asked no one in particular.

 

     Ursula: **Far away, long ago,**

 

      _The mist opened to a vast field – a garden of sorts that housed a single stable._

_The Evil Queen appeared, only she was with a man – and she looked different – happy, full of life and charm – youth and beauty. Her usual cold stare was but sincere – and her face was clear, naturally so. She was, as said before, beautiful, but not out of artificial means but of actual merit._

_“I love you,” the man said to her as he kissed her hand._

_“And I love you,” she said in return._

_The man smiled – a boyish smile – and pulled her in to properly kiss her._

_“Oh, Johnathan...”_

 

     Ursula: **Glowing dim as an ember,**

 

      _A young girl of fifteen then came to stand, she was pretty, raven-haired – and her youth gave her an air of innocence. This time, they were within an elegant hall – full of lounge chairs and duvets, and things of that nature. She was on a love-seat herself, facing an older woman who bore a striking resemblance to the Evil Queen herself._

_“Shes in love with the stable boy,” the girl said, her palms rubbing against the hem of her laced-white dress, – “she's planning to run away. She loves him – and he loves her.”_

_“When?”_

_“I promised not to tell,” she continued, “but she doesn't love my father – she shouldn't have to marry-”_

_“When?” The woman persisted again._

_“Tonight. But I'm only telling you this because I don't want to see him come between you and-”_

_“I'm glad you told me, dear. For now I understand what I must do in order for my daughter to live happily ever after – …as I never did.”_

 

     Ursula: **Things my heart,**

 

_The scene shifted. The older woman, from before, leered and brought her hand to the stable boy's chest – she smirked, and pulled forth from him, his beating heart. “This is for your own good,” she said._

_The man fell before the Evil Queen as his heart was crushed into ashes within her mother's palm._

_“Mother!” She screamed, “how could you!?” She fell to her knees and cradled her dead lover._

_“Mother knows best,” the woman assured as she turned to leave._

 

     Ursula: **Used to know,**

 

    _The queen now stood before a vast mirror dressed entirely in white with a veil neatly in place over the crown of her head. The raven-haired young girl returned, and curtsied._

_“You're a beautiful bride – Johnathan is so lucky.”_

_“I'm not marrying Johnathan,” the Queen said bitterly, still looking to her reflection, “I am to be your step-mother – I'm marrying the King.”_

_The girl frowned. “But I thought-?”_

_“Well you thought wrong.”_

_“But your mother-?”_

_The girl froze, for the queen's icy stare had turned to her within the reflection of the mirror._

_“What about my mother?” She leaned in close, turning to face the young girl, “did you tell my mother about me and Johnathan? Why would you tell her – ? I told you not to tell!!!”_

_The girl jumped but remained in place. “I...I didn't want him coming between you and your mother,” she answered, nearly in tears – then, “...are you mad at me?”_

_“No,” the Queen said after a moment, a small smile coming to her face. “Of course not.” She then turned to the mirror once more. Her smile slipped. “Never you, Snow...”_

 

     Evil Queen: **Things it yearns to remember...**

 

      _The images danced into another picture then, a fragment, but a picture no less – Ursula, albeit younger and fairer – with a mermaids tail, fell to the floor in a heap._

_She clambered, and gripped her golden shell tight._

_“This is my Kingdom!” Triton hollered as he brought his trident to her neck._

_“Father gave me half of it,” Ursula barked, “you got the east – and I the west-”_

_“What are you to do with it, sister? You're but a woman. And women should be seen and never heard!”_

_“I am rightful heir-!”_

_She jumped forward and seized the trident, knocking it from Triton's hands. The older teen, however, took control and brought his sister to the ground. She struggled as he pinned her, but held the Trident tight within her grip._

_It sparked to life as they rustled..._

_“You are never to be queen-!”_

_“I hate you-!”_

_Triton seized the trident-_

_“You will be banished-!”_

_Ursula screamed in horror as she was blasted into the palace walls – the trident glowing fierce within the wake of the aftermath._

_“Ursula-!” Triton then screamed, worry and concern evidently coming to surface from the once heated man. The other simply shrieked though and emerged from the rubble with a horrendous cackle._

    _“You will pay for this!”_

_A tentacle lashed out to Triton as he scurried back from the scene._

_"W-what-? What happened?”_

_“You happened,” she harped as her other arms surfaced – revealing her now horrendous transformation, “you don't know how to wield such power, you're an imbecile – just like father! Banish me as you will – for I will not stay in this world ruled by men. But mark my words, brother – I will get your crown if it's the last thing I do!!!”_

 

     Ursula: **And a song someone sings,**

 

    _Jafar then came into focus – only his usual lithe form was strikingly endowed, and he was young and handsome, with a beautiful wife no less who bowed at his side before the great Sultan of Agrabah. He looked positively radiant as she gripped his hand, bringing to it – her lips which nestled into a neat little smile._

_The Sultan leaned towards them from his throne._

_“Why, who is this exquisite creature?” He asked._

_“I am Jafar,” Jafar answered._

_“No, not you – you blubbering fool.” He looked to the girl._

_“Oh,” Jafar tried again, “this is my wife, Sherrezade.”_

_“So honored,” Sherrezade said as she continued to bow._

_The Sultan leered, “yes – quite. She is my wife now.”_

_“What-?” Jafar asked, coming to his feet._

_“I must have her,” the man declared._

_“No – no! She's my wife!”_

_“You dare defy the Great Sultan? Guards!”_

_All at once, Jafar was thrown to the ground and whipped into submission as his wife was taken hold of. “Wait!” She screamed. She pelted forward to Jafar, and tossed a single token at him in her haste – half of a golden scarab. “You must let me go!”_

      _“I can't-!”_

_“You will be a great vizier one day, it is your destiny! We will be reunited – just as the lovers of the Tiger Head cave!”_

_The mist fell to black as she was escorted out..._

 

     Maleficent (voice): _A forest of thorns shall be their tomb..._

     Evil Queen (voice): _And now, a special sort of death for one so fair..._

      Jafar (voice): _Whoever has the gold makes the rules..._

 

     Maleficent, Evil Queen, and Jafar (voices): **Once upon a December.**

 

     The room was left bare once more – the hellish light no longer among them.

     “How very unfortunate,” Ursula then said above a whisper.

     She paused – then, “I'm leaving you now, but I will return in three hours time – perhaps after some thought, I may release you.” She turned to Mal, “but only if by then you've come to decide whose side you're truly on. Oh, and just know this – your parents,” she briefly glanced to Jane, “give or take, are living extraordinary well ever since I changed their stories for the better.”

     And with that, she left.

 

**...**

 

     Ulric watched as his mother approached the door to the throne room – her throne room, the once late King and Queen's throne room of Auradon. He dismissed that thought entirely – for this was no longer Auradon. Auradon hadn't ever existed in this world.

     “What happened?” He asked, coming to meet her steps.

     “They were given the choice,” she answered, “as you wished.”

     “And?”

     “And,” the woman said, “they were given time to muse it over.”

     “Even Jane?”

     The woman stared him down. “Even. Jane.” She mockingly laughed, “but I don't see why – we could have easily thrown her onto the Isle-”

     “No,” he spat.

     “No,” the woman chuckled yet again, “of course – what was I thinking?” She slid by him and onto her throne – a golden clam that now ceremoniously opened itself up to her. It was beautiful to say the least, fitting – for a queen.

     “A prince must have a pet,” she then said, “and she'll make a marvelous one at that – after we cut out her tongue of course.”

     “No-!”

     “I tease,” she laughed, “my – you really are quite taken with her... It's futile though, you know – once you nearly beat a girl to death, they don't particularly come running back.”

     “It was an accident.”

     “Didn't seem like it,” she responded, “you slammed her face into the floor. That's not charming, dear – it's actually kind of psychotic.” She laughed once more, “I've never been more proud.”

     Ulric sighed and turned on his heels-

     “And where do you think you're going?”

     “To the Isle,” he answered, not looking to her.

     She groaned. “Why do you continue to visit there time and time again? Haven't you spent enough time there as it is?”

     “It's just a precaution,” Ulric answered, “we can't have Fairy Godmother escaping and-”

     “She has no magic-”

     “But she has her memories-”

     “But no one else does,” Ursula chuckled, “shes as trapped as ever, as we were, and like us – she'll rot on that island for years and years, hoping that one day she may get a chance to escape. That will never happen though.”

     “But why does she remember?” He asked, turning to face his mother once more. “Why does Jane and-?”

     “I'm not entirely sure,” Ursula cut in, “perhaps...” she twiddled with the wand, “shes immune to the wand's magic – or at the very least, this particular spell – it would explain why the tart is still here likewise.”

     “And Mal and Carlos?”

     She shrugged, “oh, I don't know – why must I think on these trivial matters? Perhaps that final counter spell she used to awake them shielded them.” She groaned, “oh, all this useless chatter is giving mommy a headache. Point in case, dear, they have their memories and they're going to keep them.” She draped herself further into her seat with yet another groan. “Not even my shells could extract them.”

     Ulric nodded.

     “Yes, well – I'll see myself out.” He exited the room.

     Ursula, now alone, whisked her hand to call forth a guard – who rose from a manifesting puddle of water upon the floor.

     “Yes, your majesty?” The guard asked, now fully formed.

     “Follow my son,” she instructed with her tentacles against her temples, “and see to it that he doesn't do anything out of character.”

 

**...**

 

     Ulric came to the palace steps and watched as villain after villain skipped past him – some, with loot in their arms – others, selling – and others, simply parading about with their wealth and riches. Times were – well, good he supposed – and yet still there were issues within the Kingdom. This place was corrupt – for nearly everyone wanted to be above another – and not all of them got their way. Maleficent, for example, had wanted to rule the Kingdom – justly so – but mother had disclosed that and had simply threatened to tear off her wings. She, of course, hadn't been too pleased to learn that her daughter Mal had been imprisoned so she had been sanctioned elsewhere for the time being. 'Too good to live among us cruel devils'. Speaking of, Cruella, well – she was far too happy without Carlos – she had her car, her home, and servants – what need did she need of a son? As for the-...

     “You shall be the Queen of the ball, Evie,” the Evil Queen said as she passed, taking no notice of Ulric on the steps, “remember, eyes on the prize.”

     “The Prince,” Evie dreamily smiled, “of course, mother-”

     “Now – now,” her mother said, “let's not focus just on beauty here. Yes, that does matter my dear but let's not forget what makes a good queen-”

     “Forgiveness, kindness, and gratitude.”

     “Right. And always marry-”

     “For love.” Evie finished. “But what if I am not to love the prince and our chance to restore this kingdom for the better fails?”

     “That,” the woman answered, “is a choice that you will have to make should it ever arise.”

     Ulric sighed. It was a wonder how much things could change with such a small twist in time. Most of the meanest cruelest villains were now happily living, going on without a care in the world or trying to advocate for a better tomorrow. While the lesser known ones, those originally on the sidelines mostly, continued to bask within their treacherous ways. Really now, these streets were a dangerous place at times and yet far safer than those of the past Isle. It was – well, twisted.

     “It's the Prince – the Prince,” Lucinda, daughter of Anastasia, gawked, calling forth her hoards of sisters who immediately clung to Ulric's side like leeches, “oh, your highness – your charmingly handsome highness – you look well – are you to marry yet?”

     Each sister bowed respectively but shoved another in their wake, causing an uproar of a fight to begin – like mother like daughters, he supposed, as he bounded from the clutter and into an alley-way, successfully slipping past unnoticed as they continued to bicker and swat at each other. From here, he could spot Jay and his father Jafar – but also, Jafar's wife – Sherrazade.

     “An antique shop,” Jafar joyously laughed, “that's what we need.”

     “Really?” Jay asked.

     His father nodded, “yes, and we'll build the establishment using the golden rule: treat others as sisters and brothers, and they'll treat you the same.”

     Sherrazade came to her husband and kissed him gently upon the lips.

     Ulric left the sight entirely and came to the edge of Auradon, or rather not Auradon – again, not anymore. This land was now called Underland, he reminded himself. It was a stupid name really, but not more or less stupider than Auradon, he supposed.

     Yes, Underland was now his home – their home – for it solely existed in order to enact their happy endings, and while most of them were just that, happy – the world still remained as dark and dank as ever for him and a few others. As said, the place was corrupt – still full of those who tried to gain the upper hand. Ulric simply supposed that the world was always going to have it's ups and downs – that there was never to be a peaceful co-existence between all of them. For no one could ever be as happy or as miserable, or as good or even as bad, as their neighbor.

     Every world was simply destined to be imperfect.

     He turned to the shore.

     From here – across the way, past the expanse of ocean, laid the Isle.

     Ulric sighed.

     Times were most definitely hard there – those 'good guys' – they were, well...they weren't as good anymore. They lived in poverty and some, if not all, had changed their ways to fit their world. Thieves, scoundrels, lowlifes – they were all but common criminals now, mostly.

     In a way, he pitied them – felt for them.

 

**...**

  
  


     “I didn't know,” Jane said to no one in particular, her voice breaking the imminent silence that had fallen around the three of them since Ursula's departure. “Really – I didn't...”

     “How could you have?” Mal asked, her head resting against the metal bars of her cage – she looked paler than usual, colder – nearly as white as when she had fallen into a death-like sleep. “None of us knew, not even our parents.”

     Carlos cleared his throat, “now what?”

     Mal shrugged, “I guess – I guess we just move forward...as we always have.”

     “So there's a plan then?”

     “No,” she answered, “no plans – we just continue on – we accept Ursula's deal.”

     “What?” Jane cut in, “you want to live on in this world-?”

     “What choice do we have!? Sides,” she drew her fists closer to her side, “what they did to my mother was unforgivable. And if what Ursula says is true, then shes happy now...she's probably soaring through all the heavens as we speak.”

     “And what if shes lying?” Carlos asked.

     “She isn't!,” Mal snapped, “Don't you see, Carlos? Ursula is right. She's not to blame. They are. They overlooked what they did to my mother and gave a false tale of her being an evil fairy! She had every right!”

     “She cursed a child – an innocent baby-”

     “She was born from Stefan – a monster!”

     “That's what they said about us,” Carlos countered, “and we proved them wrong, didn't we?”

     “That's different,” Mal sighed, “you just...you don't understand.” She turned away from the bars closest to Carlos and brought her knees into her chest, “it didn't happen to your mother...”

     “No, it didn't. But it happened to Jay's dad and Evie's mom,” Carlos whispered, “and I'm sure that they would choose to do what's right over those wrongs. Yes, what happened to your mother was terrible – but she chose her path – she chose to be a villain and paid for it heavily. Just as Jafar – and the Evil Queen did. But what's happening right now isn't right – none of our friends deserve to be punished for what their parents did. We may be winning this time around but Ben, Audrey, Lonnie, Doug, and the rest of them are on that damn Isle! You remember, don't you? How terrible it was...well imagine it now.”

     “...do you really think Evie and Jay would want to change this?”

     “Yes,” Carlos nodded, “I do. Because they're good – because we're all good.”

     Mal buried her face within her palms, “I don't even know what good is anymore...”

     Silence fell... – then-

     “Me neither,” Jane said, looking past into the hole that sat before her, “I thought I did – I thought that mother had taught me...now I just don't know.” She paused. “Maybe – maybe I'm just not meant to understand the difference...all I ever do is make things worse...”

 

     Mal: **Look at you,**

     Jane: **Look at me,**

     Mal: **Can I simply let it be?**

     Jane: **Mother...**

 

     Mal: **Is it wrong,**

     Jane: **Is it right,**

     Mal: **Seek revenge in the night?**

     Jane: **Mother.**

     Jane and Mal: **Tell me what to do...**

 

     Carlos: **Mother cannot guide you.**

**Now you're on your own.**

**Only me beside you.**

**Still, you're not alone.**

**No one is alone.**

**Truly.**

**No one is alone.**  
  
  


     Carlos: **Sometimes people lead you.**

**Halfway through the wood.**

**Then they may deceive you.**

**You decide whats good.**

**You decide alone.**

**But no one is alone.**

     Jane: **Mother,**

     Mal: **Mother...**  
  
  


     Carlos: **Mother isn't here now,**

     Mal: **Wrong things, right things,**

     Carlos: **Who knows what she'd say?**

     Jane: **Who can say what's true?**

     Carlos: **Nothings quite so clear now.**

     Mal: **Do things, fight things,**

     Carlos: **Feel you've lost your way?**

     Jane: **Who decides when-?**

     Carlos: **You are not alone,**

**Believe me,**

**No one is alone,**

      **Truly.**

  
  


     Carlos: **You move just a finger,**

**Say the slightest word.**

**Somethings bound to linger,**

**Be heard,**

**No one acts alone,**

**Careful,**

**No one is alone.**  
  
     P **eople make mistakes.**

     Mal: **Heroes,**

     Jane: **Villains,**

     Carlos: **People make mistakes.**

**Holding to their own,**

**Thinking they're alone.**

      **Honor their mistakes,**

     Mal: **Fight for their mistakes,**

     Carlos: **Everybody makes.**

     Carlos and Mal: **One another's terrible mistakes.**  
  
  


     Jane: **Heroes can be wrong, villains can be good.**

     Carlos: **You decide what's wrong, you decide what's good**

      **Just remember..**

     Mal: **Just remember.**

     Carlos: **Someone is on your side**

     Jane and Mal: **Our side,**

     Carlos: **Our side--someone else is not.**

    **While we're seeing our side**

     Jane and Mal: **Our side..**

     Carlos: **Our side--**

     Carlos, Jane, and Mal: **Maybe we forgot: they are not alone.**

**No one is alone.**

  
  


     Jane and Mal: **Hard to see the light now.**

     Carlos: **Just don't let it go.**

     Carlos, Jane, and Mal; **Things will come out right now.**

      **We can make it so.**  
  
  


     Carlos, Jane, and Mal: **Someone is on your side,**

**No one is alone.**

  
  


     “Two hours,” Mal said with a frown as she wiped away her remaining tears. She then sighed and turned to smile weakly at Carlos – “Ursula's coming back in roughly two hours. You got a plan to get outta here?”

     He flushed, “uh – no, not really...I hadn't thought all of this through actually.”

     “Well then we're screwed either way,” she shrugged, “...so much for that pep talk-”

     “Not necessarily,” Jane cut in.

     “What?” Mal then called out, rising to her feet, “you got a chainsaw up there or something? – Because without magic,that would be our only hope at this point.”

     “Magic,” the girl said, staring down at her own two hands, “is what we exactly have.”

     “What are you talking about? My spell-book isn't here – so unless this plan involves me enchanting hair then we're out of luck 'cause that's the only spell I know by heart at this point. Well that and how to properly cheat on any test that you Auradonians can throw at me.”

     “I knew it,” Carlos spat.

     “I'm wasn't talking about you,” Jane said as she peered on down to the other girl.

     “Who then?” Mal asked, “you? Because last time I checked, Ursula had the wand. And all lover-boy over here has is a hard-on for the King-”

     “Hey-!” Carlos barked.

     “What?” Mal asked, “I haven't addressed the obvious elephant in the room once since I woke up – so excuse me for finally voicing in something about it.”

     Jane nodded, “that's true – but-”

     “Hey!” Carlos hollered once more.

     “I meant about the wand,” Jane continued, “but – well,” she paused, “you see...on occasion, I've been able to produce some light magic on my own – without the wand.”

     “What?” Mal asked, “really? And you're just sharing this now?”

     “I've always been afraid of it,” Jane answered honestly, “I've only been able to do it under a lot of stress – I one time broke my vanity mirror just by looking at my re-”

     “Focus,” Mal snapped, “if what you say is true then all you have to do is focus and channel your magic. Or actually-” she paused, “nope, scratch that – what you have might be untamed magic, it's what you have at the early stages – it's wild – corrupt – dangerous!”

     “Dangerous?”

     “Yeah,” Mal nodded, “that's why it only goes haywire when you freak out.”

     “Did you go through this too?”

     “No,” she answered, “I should have but I didn't because my magic wasn't able to pierce past the barrier of the Isle – I grew up trained on how to channel it – but you, you're still a virgin Jane!”

     The girl flushed, “is that a good thing?”

     “Of course it is – we need the most chaotic virgin-est magic to break these bars! Fuck a chainsaw, we're home free – well, just as long as you don't kill us in the process-”

     “What-!?” Carlos shrieked.

     “Oh, relax,” Mal shooed, “if we die, we die – no skin off my bones-”

     “But what if she literally tears off our skin!”

     “The chances of that are very slim,” Mal said, “sides, this is our only hope, Carlos.”

     “Alrighty then,” Jane nervously chuckled, still staring down at the two of them from above, “no pressure is on the line I see.”

     “Just the fate of everyone and everything,” Mal retorted, “but no pressure.” She smirked. “Just focus – or don't focus – just feel – don't conceal – just let it go!”

     “What?” Jane asked, “you're not making any sense!”

     “Just think about something stressful – or something that makes you angry!”

     “Like what?”

     “I don't know,” Mal answered, “just think of something.”

     Jane sighed and turned away to glance out the window once more.

     Something stressful, she thought, something stressful – what could be more stressful than this current situation as it was? She was locked up in a bird cage for fucks sake and the whole world around her was flipped upside down – and it was all her fault, what could possibly be even more-? She stopped.

     “Did you think of something?” Carlos called out.

     “Shut up,” Mal shot back, smacking him upside the head, “she needs to think.”

     All at once, a single image came to Jane's mind – a face – a boy... She looked to her palms. She could recall the blood – the pain – the anguish – the hurt.

     Iron bars clattered to the floor as a silver light erupted from her hands. She had stilled, at first taken back, but had simply stared on through the now swiftly cut opening in the cage – from below, she could hear Mal and Carlos cheering her on, but all she could mentally see was the look of absolute terror on Ulric's face. An image that she had constructed in and around her own mind.

     Jane's eyes blared white as she scrambled over to hoist herself down and free the others.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update! Hoozah. I've actually been meaning to post this for a while now but I left it in my computer to rot away for weeks now. I finally opened it and reworked it to have it done by tonight. It's nearly midnight over here!
> 
> Songs - Once Upon A December - Anastasia.  
> No One Is Alone - Into the Woods.  
> *lyrics were, as always, tweaked to mesh.
> 
> To Note: Much of the villains backstories are derived from either Maleficent (film), Once Upon A Time (Series), and/or Twisted (Starkid Musical). Dialogue was changed to fit my story though, but their ideas derive from the sources listed.  
> \- okay, ByEeZz.


	10. Life's Too Short

     Ulric came to the entrance of the prison with a deep frown scorning his face.

     The place was horridly disgusting, grueling – with each sectional piece of cobble and stone stained in either mud, shit, blood or a combination of the three.

     His mother had always encouraged the slum here on the Isle, for the prisoners didn’t deserve great conditions – it was too much of a privilege she said.

     He supposed that one couldn’t help the mess either, not without anyone to properly clean it after years and years of human ‘businesses’.

     “My Lord,” a voice greeted him from the shadows.

     Ulric dipped his head in recognition as he came forward into the cavern.

     “To what,” the man continued with an indignant cough, “Do we owe this special visit? Business – pleasure?”

     “Boredom,” Ulric answered.

     “Ah, yes,” the other chuckled, “the usual case.”

     The cloaked man before him hobbled down from his space against the wall and dangled a single key in front of his face. “I imagine that you wish to speak to the boy, correct?”

     “Yes,” Ulric nodded, snatching the key within a single swoop.

     “I daresay – you visit him an awful lot.”

     “Yeah – well, what’s it to you?”

     “Nothing, my Lord – I was simply making an observation.”                          

     “Well keep to yourself.”

     “As you wish…”

     The man hobbled back into the rocks as Ulric stepped forward to pass the iron gates before him. Perhaps the other was right. Maybe these musings were getting out of hand – but what could he say? He felt a need to keep tabs on the other. Why? He couldn’t really say. And yet…in a way, he could almost understand – not in thought, mind you – but rather in heart. Yes, there certainly was a reason for being close to the other. Yet each time he tried to give thought to that very reasoning of heart, he would be denied so. It was such a burden of a case that he simply chose to overlook it in favor of being able to go through with the action each time.

     It was stupid really, but completely necessary all the same.

     He turned a corner, followed by another – and then another.

     These dungeons were catacombs – with cells that ran up and down in every direction. It was a new addition to the Isle. Mother had thought it wise to impart even more cruelty upon these especially select few. An eye for an eye, sort of speak.

     One cell stood out specifically among the others. Down a flight of steps, and passed the iron chambers, laid the Fairy Godmother’s cell. On some occasions, Ulric would visit here – mostly to hear her words of near clarity in an otherwise mad house full of prisoners. Her ramblings usually consisted of her hope that the light that was assumedly within him would spark back to life. She saw through him at times – or so she claimed, for she sensed a sliver of good within his heart – a sliver that had, according to her, been placed there some time ago. It was sad really – for she was the only one who remembered of the old ways. She was the only one who still maintained hope.

     Ulric wasn’t here for her though – not today. No.

 

     He slipped the key into the lock and opened the vault – which led into a pitch-dark cavern of sorts. Above him, in chicken-scribbled handwriting, read ‘Auradon’s once and never King’.

     He frowned – who thought themselves so clever as to write such an idiotic sign?

     “Stop...”

     Ulric paused at the familiar voice.

     “…what? Who are you? Why are you here?”

     “For the same reason as always,” Ulric answered as he pulled out a lighter to light the chambers candles.

     “Light – light...”

     The occupant of the cell scrambled towards the source of light, revealing, in its wake, his harsh haggard exterior. If not for the soft green eyes that lay beneath the tangled knots of matted hair, Ulric wouldn’t have recognized the former King of Auradon himself.

     “You look wretched.”

     “Light,” the other simply mumbled.

     Ulric nodded, “yes, light. Here – you can have this one but don’t burn yourself with it.”

     Ben nodded and took hold of the candle as Ulric continued to light the others.

 

**...**

 

     “We're here to see Evie,” Mal announced to the guard before them for the umpteenth time. It was completely idiotic in a sense, for it seemed as though this man’s only job was to act like a complete ass to anyone who wished to pay a visit to the Evil Queens manor.

     “Do you have an appointment?” The man asked yet again with a mild sneer and upturn nose.

     “No! For the last time, we don't have an appointment but-!

     “Then – for the last time – I say, go away.”

     “But it's real important,” Carlos cut in.

     “Not my problem.”

     Mal chuckled despite herself. “Look, I get it – you’re nasty. Okay? Usually I can honor that but right now I don't have time for it-” She turned to Jane. “Do it – now!”

     “No,” Jane protested, “I can't!”

     “What did I say, Jane Doe?”

     “Stop calling me that.”

     “Then stop being so freaking innocent and blast the guy already-”

     “Blast me?” The man laughed, “as if some small little runt like you could possibly-”

     Jane whisked her hand and sent the man flying into the doorway, which splintered off as he slammed into the wood and thudded down to the floor.

     “Whoa,” Mal laughed, “nice job.”

     “If you say so,” the other sighed with a frown.

     “It had to be done,” Carlos said.

     The trio entered the home and found themselves standing within a grand foyer, which ran several stories high. It was a palace, in every sense of the word – a home fit for a princess.

     “Evie must be loving this,” Mal whispered, her eyes roaming over pillars of stone which continued upward until meeting the ceiling where an immense crystal chandelier sat.

     “Oh, I am.”

     Mal instantly turned to the direction of the grand staircase. There – standing atop the very last step, decked from head to toe within jewels and riches, stood Evie herself.

     Within her hand laid a dagger.

     “But I can’t possibly imagine why you would care,” she continued with a single step towards them, “It does make me curious though. Tell me, why are you here? It’s not every day, after all, that the daughter of Maleficent barges into my home-”

     “Well, that's kind of a long story,” Carlos answered.

     The girl eyed him. “And you are?”

     “Me?” He gawked. “I'm Carlos – you know, Cruella's son?”

     “I wasn't aware that she had a son,” Evie said as she idly took yet another step towards them. “At any rate,” she turned back to Mal, “I believe that a question had been asked.”

     “Well-”

     “We need your help,” Jane cut in.

     She stepped forward herself, coming into Mal’s right side.

     “You,” Evie said, “aren't you the daughter of the Fairy Godmother? What on earth are you doing here – how did you-?” She immediately paused and turned to Mal. “You helped her escape the Isle? What is this – some sort of plan to seize the Kingdom from Ursula's tentacles?”

     “No,” Mal answered, stepping forward herself, “or...yes, in a way. Listen E – we need-”

     “It's Evie,” she corrected, “we are not on any familiar grounds to make you think otherwise.”

     “Okay,” Mal nodded, “...listen Evie – we need your help. This place – this kingdom isn't right – Ursula has twisted everything around-”

     “I'm aware,” Evie spat, “you and your mother aren't the only people to think such.”

     “But that's just it,” Mal retorted, “this isn't about my mother – and it isn't about anything you think. This world is fake – Ursula went back in time and changed everything. She locked the heroes on the Isle and destroyed Auradon-”

     “What are you talking about?”

     “Evie,” Carlos called out, “you have to believe us. All of this isn't real-”

     “It's seems very real to me-”

     “But it's not,” Jane cut in, “this isn't how it's supposed to be. The heroes should be living here – in Auradon – and the villains should be-...” The girl hesitated as her words fell to silence. Slowly, as though she was frightened to do so, she turned to Mal. “...it's not supposed to be that way either, is it?”

     “What?” Mal asked.

     “Heroes – villains,” she answered, “who’s to say which is which and who should be damned?” She looked to the floor. “Maybe Ursula does have a point.”

     “I've humored you enough!” Evie announced, “now either get out or I'll-”

     “Wait!” Mal jumped into action and pelted forward up the steps, taking two at a time until she was halfway between where she had been and where Evie still was. She would have gone all the way up, but the other had instinctively drawn her blade to face Mal directly.

     “E,” she said, “-er, Evie -...you can't do this.”

     “Do what?” The girl hissed, blade still drawn.

     “You can't forget me,” Mal answered, “any of us... Through thick and thin you've been there for me – been there for everyone. And this time isn't any different.” She motioned to take another step-

     “That's close enough!”

     “We’ve been enchanted – all of us. Ursula created this world by stealing Fairy Godmother’s wand. She rewrote history in order to take control of the throne. In that other world – we were friends-”

     “What-? Impossible,” Evie said.

     “No, it’s true. We were. Please Evie, you have to believe us-”

     “Enough,” Evie barked, pulling away from the other girl. “You’re confusing me with someone else.”

     “No,” Mal assured her, “I’m not.”

     “How can I possibly be expected to believe you?”

     “I know it’s crazy but there has to be some part of you that believes me.”

     “No,” Evie said, raising her dagger, “there isn’t. Now leave – or I’ll call the royal guards.”

     “Mal,” Carlo called from down below, “we should probably go. If Ursula finds out we’re-”

     “No,” Mal scorned, “we’re staying.”

     “Suit yourself,” Evie glared. She turned to the wall to where an old calling system of bells and whistles laid. A single press of a button, and the alarms would be sounded.

     “Press the stupid button,” Mal seethed, “be the prissy little Princess you’ve always wanted to be.”

     Evie turned to glare at her. “Don’t presume to say what I’ve always wanted to be. You don’t know me.”

     Mal frowned, “I guess I don’t,” but quickly smiled in her haste.

 

     Mal: **I came all this way today to fix this whole mess,**

**But now that you're like ‘wow’, you’re like a knife in my chest,**

 

     Mal gagged.

 

     Evie:  **I'm so glad you like it, Mal – 'cause this is Evie.**

**You have no idea how great it feels to be me.**

 

     She beamed with a smirk.

 

     Mal: **Gee, thanks for allowing us to see the place-!**

 

     Turning on her heels and descending, Mal shoved past Carlos and Jane as Evie trailed after her.

 

     Evie: **And showing off your mastery of tact and grace, okay!**

**Run down the hill with your secrets, and don’t return!**

 

     She motioned to the open doorway.

 

     Evie: **Bye-bye!**

     Mal: **Fine!**

 

     Evie: **Cause life's too short.**

 

     Mal turned to the other girl in an instant, mocking the broken shambles of the doorway in her haste.

 

     Mal: **There it is! The door you’d love to slam in my face.**

      **You’re doing well there for a spell, but you’ll end up back in your place.**

**Kick me out if you want, but I just wanted to say,**

**The most fairest of all – is definitely not you!**

     Evie gasped.

 

     Evie: **You can say whatever you want 'cause I don't care!**

**You’re a fool who’d love a stranger!**

 

     Mal: **You have ugly hair.**

 

     Evie and Mal: **I swear I’m through with talking-**

     Evie: **You’re annoying-**

     Mal: **Go fuck yourself!**

     Evie: **Yourself!**

     Evie and Mal: **Yourself! Hah! Life's too short!**

 

     Evie backpedaled and looked to her call system once more.

 

     Evie: **To let you trick the people down there just as coldly as you tried to trick me.**

 

     Mal: **La la lalala laaaa**

 

     Evie and Mal: **Life's too short!**

 

     Mal followed the girl back up the steps.

 

     Mal: **To listen to a reckless fool who only ever sees the things she wants to see.**

 

     Evie stopped in her haste-

 

     Evie: **You don't know-**

 

     Mal: **You have no idea-**

 

     Evie and Mal: **What I've been through.**

**I’m done with you.**

**Life's too short to waste another minute.**

 

     Mal shoved at Evie.

 

     Evie and Mal: **Life's too short to even have you in it.**

 

     Evie tried to reach the call system-

 

     Evie and Mal: **Life's too short.**

 

     “I was so wrong about you,” Mal spat as she tackled the girl to the floor.

     “You've been so wrong about everything," Evie hissed.

     “I hope you get frown lines!”

     “Take that back, you bitch!”

     “HAULT!”

     The girls stopped in their haste and turned to the doorway as a guard was harshly tossed aside and into the foyer. To their imminent surprise, it had been the very same guard that Jane had previously blasted.

     Coming to his senses, the man quickly scrambled to his feet as an abundance of knights in black ironed armor charged into the room.

     “What is the meaning of this?” Evie asked, shoving Mal off of her once and for all.

     “I tried to stop them, your highness,” the guard said weakly, “but I hadn’t been-”

     “We have come for them,” the knights cut in, speaking in orderly unison. “Queen Ursula has instructed us to obtain the prisoners once more.”

     “Prisoners?” Evie asked, looking to Mal. “Why were you imprisoned?”

     “Because we remember,” Mal coldly answered as Carlos and Jane pelted up the steps towards her.

     “I told you that we should have gone,” Carlos said worriedly.

     “Out of my way, you fools!”

     Ursula pelted through the knights, tossing them aside as her tentacles slipped into the open doorway and up into the stairwell.

     “Thought you could get away so easily?”

     “It was more of a hope really,” Carlos answered.

     “Shut up – guards, seize them!”

     The knights scattered up the stairwell as Mal seized Evie by the arm and dragged her further into the home – with Jane and Carlos following closely behind.

     “Let go of me!” Evie hollered as she shoved away from Mal.

     “She’ll take you hostage too – trust me!”

     A knight nearly seized Carlos by the leg but the boy had jumped into a banister beam just in time to escape capture. The knight, not reacting in time however, had smashed into the beam and had immediately dispersed into water and loose armor.

     “They’re not real!” Carlos hollered, “The knights – they’re just water-!”

     Another knight tackled him to the ground but Jane, acting swiftly, kicked the other’s head clean off.

     “Thanks!”

     “No problem,” she said.

     “I’m not trusting you with anything!” Evie spat as she punched a guard herself, throwing his helmet at Mal who swiftly swung around to dodge it.

     “Can you stop being a prissy little bitch for one second!?”

     “Oh, I’ll show you prissy-!”

     “Guys – so not the time,” Carlos urged as Ursula pelted forward and up onto the railing, reaching the third floor.

     With a single flick of her hand, her fallen guards rose back to life.

     Carlos groaned. “This is going to be impossible."

     “This is your fault,” Evie then beamed at Mal as she kicked at yet another guard.

     “Wait, I have an idea!”

     Jane maneuvered over to the side and casted her eyes up to where Ursula currently held her ground – directly above her, hung the immense chandelier.

     “My fault!?” Mal shouted.

     “On the count of three,” Jane continued, “duck. One-!”

     “Yes, yours-!”

     “Two-!”

     “Guys!” Carlos screamed.

     Mal shoved at Evie-

     “Three!”

     A beam of light shot forth from her hand, blinding the room for a moment or so before an immense roar ripped forth from the air around them. With a harsh wailing cackle, Ursula fell to the floor as the chandelier collapsed overhead within a fit of sparks and glass.

 

**...**

 

     Ulric felt a shudder run through him as he watched the other boy stare into the candle’s flame.

     Immediately, he had turned to his left – casting his eyes to where Underland resided. He couldn’t very well see the world from within here, yet he could clearly sense where the land stood in relation to his current position.

     Something was wrong. That much was true.

     He turned back to his companion at hand and studied him carefully. In truth, however, his mind was racing through various thoughts as to what had just occurred.

     Amidst his musings, Ben had accidentally blown out his candle.

     Ulric smirked.

     “I do believe,” he said, coming forward to re-light the stub, “that your friends have escaped.”

     “Who?” Ben asked.

     “Never mind that, you don’t know them.”

 

**...**

 

     The wand sparked as it whirled about the floor – trotting and bouncing off debris as it skittered within a wild fit. Jane, ever so cautiously, inched over to it from her spot on the floor. The impact of her magic had thrown her over the railing. Luckily for her, she had managed to remain mostly unharmed outside of some small cuts and bruises.

     She flinched as her thigh grazed against one of the helmets belonging to the knights – now surveilling about her, she could see a massive hole in the ceiling overhead. In front of her – just a foot or so sat the very chandelier that had accommodated the hole, and beneath this, laid Ursula herself.

     She reached out to seize the still buzzing instrument just as a cough erupted from the rubble.

     “Carlos?”

     Said boy sat up from his place upon the bannister on the second floor – he was, for lack of better words, a complete mess.

     “What-?” He peered round until spotting Jane. “Dang, girl…you really need to practice more.”

     “And talk less!”

     Ursula seized Jane by a tentacle and hoisted her up into the air.

     “You little runt!” She cackled, “ha-! Who would have thought!? Such powerful magic-!”

     She jostled the girl as she removed herself from the remnants of the now mangled chandelier.

     “Quite a sneaky little bitch, aren’t you?”

     “Jane!” Carlos hollered, “Hold on!”

     “Oh?” Ursula laughed once more, “and what are you going to do to save her? You’re no prince – not even a hero!” She swept Carlos aside with a single blow and crept forward to take hold of the wand once more. “I think it’s time we end this little tiring tale, shall we?”

     Ursula raised the wand to the heavens.

     “No – stop!”

     Mal rose from the ashes to meet Ursula’s face.

     “Oh? You lived, how pitiful-”

     “The deal,” Mal simply said, “you’re deal.”

     Ursula frowned. “What about it?”

     “Is it still an offer?”

     “What?” Carlos asked with a cough as he crawled upon his hands.

     “What he said,” the woman barked, “really now – do you think I would consider maintaining the deal after you brats tried to escape?”

     “Yes,” Mal answered. “But only because you’re a woman of your word.”

     Ursula smirked. “This is true.”

     “And besides,” the other continued, “you just witnessed Jane’s potential – she has powerful magic, far greater than any witch that is left.”

     Ursula turned to regard the girl that still swung from within her very grasp. “This is also true.” She pulled the girl over to her side. “You have a glorious gift, my dear - …it would be such a waste to destroy it before it’s even begun to properly blossom.”

     “She’ll give herself to you,” Mal cut in. “Won’t you, Jane?”

     “Yes,” the girl nodded after a moment.

     “We all will.”

     “Even you?” The woman asked Carlos, who now stood just out of arms reach of Mal.

     “Yes,” he conceded.

     “Very well then,” she chuckled, “oh – Ulric will be so pleased with this.” She suddenly whisked the wand – which briefly sent the trio into a fit of distress – before a sudden vast array of light appeared before them. When it had passed, they were surprised and a bit relieved to see that the witch had simply summoned her son and not another curse. Surprising them more so then that however was the very boy that was currently accompanying him.

     “Ben?” Carlos called out, his feet immediately carrying him to the broken shell of his former King.

     The other had immediately risen to his voice but had remained adamantly still aside from that.

     “Are you alright?”

     “What have you done to him?” Mal asked.

     “He’s been imprisoned,” Ulric answered as he stridden over to his mother, not even remotely surprised by his sudden change in scenery. “Can you please put her down?”

     Ursula turned to where her son motioned to and obeyed with an eye roll, and neatly placed Jane upon the floor besides him.

     “Are you alright-?” He began to ask before a slap met him squarely upon his face.

     To her imminent surprise, Ursula had laughed at Jane’s sudden burst of ‘affection’.

     “Sorry,” Jane immediately squealed, “I – no, wait. I’m not sorry.”

     Ulric, quite shocked to say the least, cupped his own cheek.  “I deserved that.”

     “Ben?” Carlos tried again, coming to the other’s side. “Talk to me Ben – please…”

     “He doesn’t remember us Carlos,” Mal reminded him, “he doesn’t…remember you.” Her very own words suddenly brought her thoughts back to Evie – or more importantly, said girl’s sudden absence.

     “Where’s E?” She whipped round to survey the debris that still lay around them, but the blue-haired girl remained unseen.

     “She’s over there,” Jane then said, shoving past Ulric and clambering around to the other side of the room. Mal followed her as Carlos continued to speak to Ben.

     “Please – just say something…anything.”

     The other boy continued to stare up at Carlos but remained as quiet as ever.

     “She’s just unconscious," Jane then said, "I'm sure she's fine...my blast might have struck her-"

     "Or I pushed her into it," Mal whispered.

     Ulric turned to his mother once more.

     “Am I to assume that they have agreed to my settlement?”

     “Your settlement?” Mal asked, looking away from her former friend.

     “Yes," Ulric answered, “my settlement.” He turned back to his mother who simply nodded. “Okay,” he then said, “so now what?”

     The woman peered round at the descendants before offering a wicked smile, “Perhaps some hospitality for our guests? Show them to the castle, dear.”

     “All of them?”

     “Yes,” she paused, “except her.” She pointed a single finger at Jane, “she comes with me.”

     Ulric looked between his mother and the girl several times but nodded nonetheless.

     “Very well, mother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, I know - and I've been meaning to update since Summer started but I've been dealing with a lot of things as of late. Better late than never I guess. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy.  
> Featured Song: Life's Too Short - (Deleted Frozen Song).


	11. Life's Too Short (Reprise)/No Way

     “Sit down, my dear – sit.”

     Jane hesitated a moment or so but easily obeyed the woman nonetheless. With a swift single motion, she neatly padded her skirt flat and sat upon the dainty chair.

     “Admiring your dress?” Ursula teased, “I assure you, it’s the latest thing– only the best for Underland’s elite.”

     “It’s beautiful,” Jane said. And if truth be told, she was quite glad to be out of her former clothes.

     “Especially compared to those rags,” the woman continued. “Now, Janie – may I call you Janie?”

     Jane nodded.

     “Janie, understand me – I’m not a terribly ill-willed person. I simply like to have it all – and after all that I’ve been through, I think I deserve it, don’t you?”

     She nodded once more.

     “Being banished then hideously transformed into this creature is a sad tale, is it not? Oh, if mother could see me now – the remarks, the cold harsh words – she never let me eat cakes, not a single desert. I was to be as fit and beautiful as a queen.”

     “…why did you stay like this then?”

     “Pardon? Speak up, dear – you have a voice, use it.”

     “If you don’t like yourself,” Jane continued, her voice only rising over a low hum, “why not change yourself then? Why stay the way you are?”

     “To prove a point,” Ursula answered, “yes it’s true that I can change my appearance at the drop of a hat nowadays but it hadn’t always been like that – I hadn’t always had the power. Unlike mommy, daddy taught me to be strong – taught me to get by with what I had. He was a fool – don’t ever forget that, but he made me stronger when mother sought to tear me down. He made me the woman that I am today – strong, independent, and resourceful.”

     “My mother tried to make me stronger too.”

     “Yes,” Ursula nodded, “but she failed I’m afraid. You see, Janie – your mother isn’t all she says she is-”

     “I know,” Jane cut in, “…I’m aware of that – now.”

     “And that’s good.” She nodded. “But don’t misunderstand me, for though your mother wasn’t great she wasn’t terrible either – not like my mother – but she did let a gift pass her by. And that is where she failed. She doesn’t see the potential within you – all she sees is a little girl…her little girl.”

     With a snap of her fingers, an orb of water rose before Jane’s very own eyes. At first it simply sledged about, creating a whirlpool in its wake – but t then it leveled, revealing a mirrored image of Jane’s very own face.

     “Do you see what I see?” Ursula then continued as she guided Jane with a single tentacle, forcing the girl to look directly into her own reflection. “I see a beautiful young woman – on the verge of becoming something even greater.”

     Jane stared at her reflection, and found – to her immediate and startling surprise – a beautiful girl before her. She saw strength, courage, and above all else – magic. Strong magic. Never before had she seen her reflection gleam with life – with such radiance. Doable wasn’t even a word here – nor decent – not this time, not ever again.

     She smiled – a true honest to god smile.

     “Join me, Janie,” Ursula said, “truly. Not as a means to live – not as a vow of fellowship to the other descendants, but as a true ally. Prove to me your loyalty and I’ll release your mother – your friends. With you by my side, no one could touch us – no one could ever undo my spell. Why imprison them when we’re unstoppable?”

     “You’d really set them free?” Jane asked, breaking forth from her reflection.

     “You have my word,” Ursula answered. “And as Mal pointed out, I am a woman of my word.”

     Jane returned to the pool of water once more.

     “Alright,” she then said with a nod, “how can I prove it to you?”

     Ursula came to her side then, a smirk readily upon her face.

     “It’s a small errand – a trifle little thing, it’ll hardly effect you at all…what I need you to do is – well, to put it quite frank – I want you to kill my son.”

     Jane frowned. “…is that all?”

     “Yes,” the woman answered, “that is all.”

 

**...**

 

     Mal paused, and turned to her reflection within the portrait before her.

     She was in her chambers, her confinement and bedroom for the time being – and yet she felt as if she was trailing the halls of Auradon Prep just as before – just as she had been on that very day for tea.

     Her reflection even looked the same as then, her hair was neatly combed and her dress was of a pretty violet hue – just like then… Always like then.

     She turned away from the portrait.

     Ursula had been adamant in her orders – she had been escorted into her room and had then been given a fresh set of clothes. Looking down at herself now though, Mal would have rather remained in her tattered beaten down rags then this princess cut frock. The guard that had forced her in here, however, had quickly ridden of her former garments before dispersing into nothing.

     Mal sighed, and brought her hands to the hem of her dress.

     It’s as if Ursula knew – as if she was openly taunting Mal by forcing her into the role of princess once more. It was unfair really…even after all of this, she – Mal – felt just as lost and deterred as then.

     Always like then.

     She parted her arms away from herself and slowly sank down to the floor.

     “Not like then,” she whispered to herself. And perhaps it was true, for though she looked the part – and though the setting seemed to be reminiscent of such, this time wasn’t exactly like then at all. Not if she truly thought about it – for Evie wasn’t anywhere close to being there as then – as now – as always.

     She turned her eyes to the only door within the bedroom. Somewhere beyond it, Evie still laid in a state of sleep – just as she had been once before herself, but this time was different. This time it had been a fault and not a spell – this time, it was possible that there wasn’t going to be a cure at all.

     This time wasn’t even remotely like then. This was far worse.

 

     Mal: **Sadness flows within me like the sea,**

**I’ve lost myself, my mother, friends, and Evie,**

**There’s no way I can win,**

**But I wish I had been true to all long ago…**

**Life’s too short,**

**To be such an oblivious fool,**

**So selfish,**

**That I couldn’t see…**

**Life’s too short to be so desperate to be found,**

**That I only ever thought of me,**

**I wish I saw things clearly,**

**I guess I’m just not the sort.**

**Now all I know,**

**Is life’s too short.**

 

     A loud thud brought Mal back to her senses.

     She quickly sprung to her feet as another thud pelted forward from outside of her room.

     She peered at the walls, the ceiling – another thud – the door. Suddenly, the massive structure of wood splintered inward.

     “What-?”

     “What?” Carlos grinned as he pelted forward through the now shambled doorframe. He, just as her, had also been ridden of his former attire in favor of a black and red blazer jacket and accommodating slacks. “You didn’t seriously think we were done for, did you?”

     Mal smiled. “Carlos – I – how did you get out?”

     The boy’s own smile faltered a fraction. “…I uh, I had some help.”

     Mal quickly turned to the open doorway.

     “Battering ram,” Ulric chuckled as he came forward, “works like a charm every-”

     A square smack to the face quickly silenced him.

     “Mal, don’t – he helped me – he’s-”

     “Its fine,” Ulric cut in as he palmed his face, “I deserved that-”

     “And much more,” Mal spat. She quickly turned to Carlos, “you do realize that he’s the reason why we’re here, right?”

     “I know,” Carlos sighed. “But he-”

     “I’m sorry,” Ulric said, cutting Carlos off once again, “you’re right – this is my fault. All of it – but I want to do right by my actions. This has all gone too far. My mother-”

     “It’s too late for that,” Mal refuted, “It’s done. You’re done.”

     “Mal-”

     “No, Carlos – no. He’s a villain-”

     “So were we,” Carlos argued, “just like him. We did what our parents asked of us-”

     “We didn’t try to kill anyone-!”

     “But we helped them – and believe me, they would have gladly killed any one of our friends.”

     Mal turned to him. “You don’t know that.”

     “But I do – and you do too. Don’t tell me that Auradon is making you forget what they were like – what we were like.”

     “…what makes you so sure that he’s not playing us?”

     “Because I’m not,” Ulric answered, “I can’t – …not anymore.”

     “Don’t you see, Mal? He’s like us, he’s been changed.”

     She looked between the pair of boys, but readily set her sights upon the taller teen. “What is it – what’s with the change of heart? Is it Jane-?” She faltered. It couldn’t be, no – impossible, and yet the longer she looked at him, the more visible it became – the more real it all read. “…it is, isn’t it?” She hesitated. “You love her, don’t you? That’s why you’re doing this.”

     Ulric frowned. “I’m not exactly sure what love is…but if that can explain things, then I suppose I am.” He turned away. “…maybe mother was right.”

     “How pathetic,” Mal cooed, after a moment, with a small groan. She briefly looked between them again but then focused entirely on Ulric once more. “What is with these goodie-two shoes? How dare they break us VK kids – …make us feel and shit.”

     Carlos smirked.

     “Am I to assume that you trust me now then?” Ulric asked.

     “Perhaps,” Mal answered, “but only because I don’t seem to have any other option.” She sighed, “Now how are we going about this? Because I for one am done with this place.”

     Ulric turned to her – “I’m not sure… My mother has the wand – and there’s no way we can get it back.”

     “Not with that attitude,” Carlos chimed in, “look – if I’ve learned anything this past year, it’s that there is always a way – even when it doesn’t seem like there is.”

     “But how-?”

     “I don’t know – but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. When we were cursed, Evie and Ben didn’t give up – no, they kept trying – they were determined to save us, Mal. And now it’s our turn – to save them – to save everyone. Even you, Ulric. Because that’s what heroes do – they save people, especially those that they love. There is absolutely no way that there is no way.”

 

     Carlos: **My mind is racing,**

**But my heart,**

**It beats faster.**

**I’m in control, commander and master.**

**Lady Fate, contemplating disaster-**

**But she isn’t the boss of me!**

**A head-on collision with a catastrophic setback,**

**Makes you either wanna get lost, or get back.**

**I choose the latter,**

**Let’s not forget that we hold the cards this time,**

**So there’s no need to bitch or whine!**

 

      **There’s no way I’m gonna take another option,**

**No way I’m gonna settle with a loss!**

**No way I’m gonna sit around and watch,**

**There’s no, no way…**

 

      **There’s no way you’re gonna find me in the background,**

**No damn way you’re gonna see me satisfied!**

**No way they’re ever gonna make me back down,**

**No, no way…**

 

     Ulric: **Home field advantage,**

**The upper hand is ours,**

**So the game is on!**

     Mal: **The clocks ticks,**

**But we’ve got our tricks,**

**To fuss and fix what’s wrong!**

 

     Carlos: **Let’s wake up and go, guys,**

**Take out the bad guys,**

**Break out your mad eyes-**

 

     Ulric, Mal, and Carlos: **Yeah!**

**Well take it on together,**

**We're stronger and were better,**

**And if there’s a problem- ha!**

**Whatever!**

 

      **There’s no way were gonna leave it up to chance,**

**There’s no damn way we’re gonna go without a fight!**

**No way you’re gonna see us on our asses,**

**There’s no, no way…**

**There’s no way were gonna settle with sorrow,**

**Leave right now if you think this ain’t real!**

**Today, not waitin’ for tomorrow!**

**No, no way there’s no way,**

**No, no way there’s no way,**

**No, no way there’s no way,**

**Theres. No. way!**

 

     “Come on,” Carlos smirked as he turned on his heels to head out the door.

     “Yeah,” Mal agreed, “let’s blow this popsicle stand.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs:   
> Life's Too Short - Frozen.
> 
> No Way - Starkid, A Very Potter Sequel.

**Author's Note:**

> Idea, previously, was prompted by Once Upon a Time and Cinderella 3 (which the opening song is taken from), though it may take a turn in events solely because I have a few, several, ideas on which direction I wish to take this tale. To note: this story will be heavily musical based - more so than the Descendants film ever was. We're going full blown Broadway - sort of, not really.  
> ...  
> Title taken from Starkid's Twisted: The Story of a Royal Vizier.  
> 


End file.
